Friday, September 26, 2008

Chubby Checker and Cable TV Weakened Society

Outrageous title? Or bold truth?

Before Chubby Checker's version of The Twist became a phenomenon, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 19, 1960, dancing involved two people actually holding each other, looking into each other's eyes, and moving together as a team across a dance floor. A necessary skill was the need to avoid bumping into other 'teams,' giving them the requisite space to achieve the broader goal of a successful dance floor. When the occasional bumping between teams occurred, social interaction on another level took place. Apologies and smiles ensued, and people moved on together, embracing one other.

The Twist started a trend that continues today: non-contact dancing. Individual expression without the counterbalance of meeting your partner's needs. Dancing with a partner became dancing with someone who had became of secondary interest and concern. What's the point? Perhaps non-contact dancing was an expression of general alienation that people were beginning to feel. The pace of society was speeding up. The Cold War threatened the destruction not only of countries, but of civilization itself. The perception was that the End Was Near. Were people afraid to connect emotionally, as the world may not exist much longer? Or did people just become more selfish?

Before cable and satellite TV systems became popular, with their dozens, and then hundreds of channels, in the USA you had the choice of ABC, CBS, NBC, maybe a PBS station, and if you were lucky, an independent station. When you went to work, school, or socialized with friends, it was highly likely that you watched at least one program the prior night that other people in your group had also watched. You discussed the pros and cons of plots, acting, and the latest commercials. There was a social bond. If politics and religion were off-limit subjects due to their controversial nature, you could always opine on The Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke, Mission Impossible, MASH, or I Dream of Jeannie. Sharing views like this provided a safe zone, and a socially acceptable way to interact, even with those folks you barely knew.

Cable TV changed all that. I first noticed this trend in the 1980s. A group of coworkers was sitting in our company's break room. Someone walked in and mentioned that he had just gotten cable TV. 35 channels! Better reception! We all oohed and ahed. Then the discussion returned to the latest developments on Dallas, The Cosby Show, or Star Search. Our cable TV guy did not participate. He had watched channels none of us had even heard of. Within a few years, we all had at least basic cable with about 60 channels. The break room discussions were more narrow. Few people watched the same shows. Those that did share that experience tended to cluster near one another for their essentially private talks. The encroaching isolation and lack of common interest was very evident. We had again chosen self over group. I'm just as guilty. I recently subscribed to the HBO package.

Maybe a partial answer lies in another technological revolution. In an odd twist, the Internet has ridden to the rescue. Now fans of TV shows can share their thoughts in a global meeting room, not just a company's break room. But at what cost? Sitting at a keyboard and screen, even with cameras, does not replace person-to-person interaction.

The Internet giveth, and the Internet taketh away. But that's a subject for another week.

Friday, September 19, 2008

McCain's Health Care Plan May Make You Sick

Are you one of the 158 million Americans who are covered by a health care plan by your employer?

Have you heard that John McCain wants to impose a tax on that benefit, based upon what premium your employer pays for you, while simultaneously providing a refundable annual tax credit of $2500 for an individual, or $5000 for a family, that may, or may not, cover the tax increase? But there's more: the real possibility that your employer may terminate your company's health care plan, under the pretense that the workers will be better off choosing a plan on their own, partially paid for by that tax credit.

On July 6, 2008, USATODAY.com carried an Associated Press article entitled, "McCain's health plan: A threat to employer plans?" It describes McCain's plan and its possible side-effects:

"There's a great unknown about Sen. John McCain's health plan: How many employers would drop insurance coverage for their workers because of his tax policies?

The Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting has proposed that everyone buying health insurance get a refundable tax credit, $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families. At the same time, he would treat employer contributions toward health insurance like income, meaning workers would have to pay income, but not payroll, taxes on it.

McCain's Democratic rival, Barack Obama, says the plan would "shred" the employer-based system that provides health insurance to about 158 million workers.

Most health analysts won't go that far, but both liberals and conservatives say McCain's approach would strengthen the individual and small-group insurance market. And by strengthening that market, it will pull in workers now covered through their jobs.

The workers most inclined to make that transition will be younger, healthier ones who most likely will be able to buy a policy on the individual market for less than their tax credit, said Paul Fronstin, a senior research associate at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, which studies employee benefits.

To the degree that happens, the employer-based market will become less healthy as sicker, older workers stay with their employer-based coverage while more of the healthier workers move to the individual market.

"What you'll see happening is average cost in the employer-market will go up and average cost in the individual market will go down," Fronstin said. "You'll start to get into a cycle where people at the margin start to leave employer coverage for individual coverage. At some point, employers will start to ask: Why am I doing this if my workers don't value it anymore? If I don't need to do this to be competitive in the labor market, why should I do it?"

Hence, the disincentive for employers to maintain their own health plans. Why put up with the headaches, and expense, of health care when they can let their employees fend for themselves, as individuals, in the health plan market. But these workers will have the buying power of one, instead of the buying power of hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands as exists today in employer-provided plans.

The free-market pundits will tout this as a great leap forward in choice. They will say that the marketplace will work its wonders in a more competitive fashion. Yet that freedom exists today. Any person can apply for health care coverage on their own. The only change, under a President McCain, will be that this person will get a $2500 federal government credit to help pay for that plan. Oh yeah, in this brave new world of individuals seeking their own coverage, you better get educated, really fast, on all the minutiae of every illness you might get, and what level of coverage, deductibles, maximum payouts, et cetera that your new prospective health care plan will provide, negotiate with them over those areas that are especially important to you, and then hope, if they haven't already rejected you outright as a result of pre-existing conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, history of heart problems, or if you are a cancer survivor, that the premium is covered by McCain's $2500. John McCain himself falls into the category of cancer survivors, so he may be excluded, but oh yes, as a Senator, he already has a government health care plan - but I thought that government health care plans are socialistic and therefore especially toxic to Republican Party karma... oh well, do as I say, not as I do, right John?

Health care costs are stifling both our country's economy and our family's budgets. We need reforms, and McCain's health care program has some promising ideas: promoting the availability of smoking cessation programs, lowering drug prices by bringing greater competition to drug markets through safe re-importation of drugs and faster introduction of generic drugs, and making insurance more portable from job to job. But his main proposal, concerning the taxing of individuals for their employer-provided health care plan coverage, is unacceptable.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

The Still Living Victims of 9/11

The cowards who planned and carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks left behind more than just crumbled buildings and dead bodies. They left behind severely wounded people who relive that terror-filled day every day of their lives. As the numerals we use to apply to our annual remembrance of this tragedy reached 7 in 2008, the still living victims fade just a little bit more in our collective consciousness. I'm ashamed to admit that I myself had not thought about them for several years, until the New York Times printed, on September 9, 2008, an article detailing the lives of three of them.

The article, entitled "Maimed on 9/11, Trying to Be Whole Again," had three immediate effects on me. First, I said a silent prayer that all the victims were rendered unconscious immediately prior to the planes impacting the buildings (even though logic, and video evidence, made it quite clear that many suffered horribly, I hoped that God, somehow, removed their suffering); second, I felt a fresh flush of rage against those who, under the guise of religious fervor, carried out such a cold-blooded attack; and third, I vowed to also remember the living victims, and include them in the few prayers that, as an agnostic, I say.

The opening paragraph in the article summarized Lauren Manning's current handshake. "Lauren Manning’s handshake is strong, almost bionic. You might think it was a byproduct of decades of playing tennis and golf. But her grip has been painfully relearned, and bolstered with more titanium pins than she cares to count." This is but one of the painful injuries inflicted upon her when, "On Sept. 11, 2001, Mrs. Manning — newly married, the mother of a 10-month-old boy, at the top of her profession on Wall Street — was met by a fireball as she strode into the lobby of the World Trade Center." She suffered severe burns on over 80% of her body, and is 'lucky' to have survived.

Elaine Duch was a senior administrative assistant in the real estate department at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. She worked on the 88th floor of the World Trade Center's north tower, and is another severe burn victim. "... in her mind’s eye her professional self still haunts the upper reaches of the north tower, where she was standing in a hallway when the flames came; she managed to get down, only to be given last rites as she emerged from the building." What does the memory of receiving last rites, and then surviving, do to a person? "Ms. Duch, 56, has cut herself off from her old friends, partly because, as she put it, “I’m never going to be the Elaine that I used to be.” "Of her current friends, Ms. Duch said, “Well, see, they did not know me before, they only know me as an injured person.” Readers - stop right now and put yourself in her shoes. Imagine if such an extreme event happened to you, and you felt compelled to end all contact with your current friends because you were no longer you. Close your eyes and feel what that would do to you on a daily basis. I suspect that Elaine considered the option of attempting to retain ties with her old friends, but felt that the fear of rejection, pity, or abandonment due to her 'change' was so palpable that she could not bear the burden. Perhaps she loved her friends so much that she didn't want them to suffer either. Oh yes, "She no longer drives because her hands are too weak and she is easily rattled. She avoids zippers, tiny buttons and opening the wax paper in cereal boxes. She suffers through summers and winters because her burned skin does not tolerate heat and cold very well."

Harry Waizer was given a 5% chance of surviving his burn injuries. His story involves a plummeting elevator. "In testimony before the 9/11 Commission on its first day of hearings in 2003, Mr. Waizer recounted how he had been going up to his office on the 104th floor when he felt an explosion and the elevator began to plummet. Burned as he beat out the flames, Mr. Waizer got out on the 78th floor and took the stairs to the ground, seeing looks of horror and sympathy on the faces of those who let him pass." He too is not the same person he had been. "Perhaps the most distinctive relic of his injuries is his whispery, soothing voice, possibly caused by inhaling jet fuel that left him with “a bit of vocal cord paralysis.” click here to read more

This post focused on three specific individuals. But each has spouses and family that must suffer as well. And for what? A twisted political statement written in the blood of innocents? At times like this, I feel less an agnostic, and more a believer... at least in a heaven and hell. A wrong must be balanced by a right, whether that right is defined by a punishment or a redemption. I remember being taught in church that "Revenge is mine, sayeth the Lord." That sentence tempers my desire for revenge... a bit.

Each victim has learned how to cope with their injured bodies and painful memories. The Times article did not indicate that these people had any residual anger or hatred towards anyone. Could you and I be that forgiving? I don't think that I would have the inner strength to let go of my feelings of hate that would dwell within me following such an outrage against my person. What about you?

Friday, September 5, 2008

Three Problems With Republican VP Candidate Palin

When Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, was first introduced, I liked her. I was intrigued by her background, and thought that she was the first 'normal, everyday citizen' that had been thrust into the national political spotlight since Harry Truman. But Truman had a 22 year political track record of elected positions from district judge to U.S. senator prior to being selected by President Franklin Roosevelt as his vice presidential running mate in 1944.

So Palin was truly a fresh face. Fresher even than Senator Obama. She had fought the political establishment in Alaska. This sounded promising. I began to research her political beliefs, and found that the devil was in the details. The following are three of those devilish details that bother me about Palin's policy positions.


#1 - In June 2008, Palin made a speech to ministry students in Alaska. The venue was the Wasilla Assembly of God church. An Australian newspaper, The Herald Sun, amongst many others, printed the story on September 4 from which the following quote by Palin is taken:

"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending soldiers out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan." click here to read more

That's just what our country does not need - a Vice President, and potential President, who sets public policy based upon what is "God's plan."


#2 - On August 29, 2008, Michael Paulson, who covers religion for The Boston Globe, and shared the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in the 'Meritorious Public Service by a Newspaper' category, wrote:

And in October of 2006, the Anchorage Daily News reported that Palin said the following about creationism at a debate:

"Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information....Healthy debate is so important and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both. And you know, I say this too as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject -- creationism and evolution. It's been a healthy foundation for me. But don't be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides." click here to read more

That's another thing this country does not need - a Vice President, and potential President, who proposes the teaching of creationism in public schools. If creationism is permitted, then why not other non-scientific theories?


#3 - Abortion and a woman's right to choose. Palin opposes all abortions except when the mother's health is endangered. During the 2006 governor's race debate, she opined that even if her own daughter had been raped and became pregnant as a result of that rape, (Palin) would choose life over abortion. click here to hear Palin's comment

The official McCain/Palin web site clearly states the Republican Party's position on abortion:

"John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned, and as president he will nominate judges who understand that courts should not be in the business of legislating from the bench."

That's yet another thing this country does not need - a return to dangerous, illegal, back alley abortions in those states that, absent the Roe v. Wade decision, would again outlaw abortion.