Still Clickin

As a country, America’s self image has always tried to stake out the high ground. We are there to “Do Good”. We are for “Freedom” and against the “Oppressors”. We are quick to condemn “Injustice”. We consider ourselves to be a nation built upon moral principles.

Are we?

At the end of 2010, our Congress struggled with, and finally passed, healthcare reform, i.e. the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Those against these changes kept to the theme that “socialized medicine is bad”. Apparently, they would prefer their medical treatment to be asocial, and that is exactly what a twelve-minute exam gets you.

Last year, a very interesting book was published named The Healing of America. It is a delightfully readable description of this very complex subject. Its author, T. R. Reid, is a Washington Post correspondent with a problematic shoulder. To get his shoulder fixed, and to discover the realities of medical practices in today’s world, he traveled to France, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Canada, and India. In each country, he sought out the finest doctors and medical practitioners and asked for their advice. He also assessed the cost and the timeliness of the various remedies that were proposed. From this first-hand medical marathon, he developed an assessment of the national medical experiences from a patient’s point of view.

Then, he compared these systems to the medical practices found in America. He discovers that the myth we have the best healthcare in the world is challenged by the statistics. America ranks – 24^th for healthy life expectancy, 37^th in healthcare system performance, and 47^th for average life expectancy at birth. The only measure in which we can claim that we are number one is cost.

Rather than be negative, however, Mr. Reid presents a very clear and concise description of the various types of health systems in the world and compares them to what America is doing. The comparisons are both instructive and revealing. In addition, he adds the systems that Taiwan and Switzerland have recently enacted. He argues that America should be able to study these systems, pick the best elements from each, and change to these more effective practices.

But the book ends where it begins, i.e. with the sobering message that more than 20,000 Americans in the prime of life die each year because they cannot afford healthcare. At the beginning and end, the question is a moral one. How moral a nation are we if we allow this to happen?

For more information go to -

• The author’s website
• The wikipedia summary
• Business Week’s review
• Amazon listing

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Human beings, as social creatures, are bound to live in community. But living in community brings with it two intrinsic elements - regulations and taxes.

In the history of mankind, you have to assume that regulations came before taxes. The first regulations likely involved the proper sharing of the food from the hunt. Time and work contributions to the community didn’t get replaced by taxes until some sort of currency was established. However, the lapse of time between the two couldn’t have been more than a few moments. No one with any power would skip an opportunity like that.

Eons later, we are still involved with community and still arguing about regulations and taxes. Conservatives want less sharing and stress the rights of the individual. Liberals stress the good of the community, and are more willing to accept regulations and taxes to enhance it. Obviously, both viewpoints have some validity. It is a question of balance.

Right now, the issue of Social Security is moving into the crosshairs of our Federal Government. Where is the proper balance?

When Social Security started out, it was an insurance plan. Our payroll deductions that were made for Social Security were insurance premiums. Like any insurance program, the money was to be invested and the benefits paid out of from the fruits of those investments. Those funds grew, performed, and began to look to tempting to ignore. Before long, Congress decided to “utilize” these funds and ignore the insurance concept. As a consequence, the program is under-funded today.

Now, what do we do? How about we allow senior citizens to work? Give them the choice.

• Possibly it is wrong to ask this question at this time when so many younger people are out of work, but many senior citizens would love the opportunity. But we live in a youth-oriented society, and in the workplace, senior citizens are more often tolerated than valued.
• Provide sliding scale tax incentives to companies that hire senior citizens. For example, one credit/hire for jobs that pay in the 20’s, two for jobs that pay in the 30’s, three for jobs that pay in the 40’s, etc. This would counter the earnings barrier that seniors face. As a professional who works to find jobs for seniors recently said, “The best opportunities that I can find for seniors in major cities pay $12/hour. I have people with PhD’s working for that.”
• Our current tax code already returns Social Security payments for anyone with some earnings. Working seniors not only recognize, but willingly accept that. Effectively, because of the opportunity to work, they are paying their own way.
• Promote job sharing so that those that didn’t want or need to work fulltime could share their responsibilities flexibly with another person. This arrangement could be very beneficial to organizations that have variable business demands.

Congress seems afraid to reduce Social Security, and the way things stand now, they should. However, if given an incentive, some of the younger members of our society might be courageous enough to stop calling us “Honey” or “Dear” and start treating us more as equals. They might be surprised that we have contributions to make and that experience really does have some value.

Today, Social Security is nothing more than guilt money. It allows Congress to assume the posture that the “senior issue” has not only been dealt with, but generously. However, if you ask anyone that has to live on it, they will laugh in your face. For many of these people, the opportunity for a job would be a gift.

Some sites for further thoughts are -

• There are a few opportunities, e.g. Experience Works
• A Canadian perspective, Senior Years
• Volunteering is the current option, e.g. Senior Corps

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As we wind down 2010, the facet of our culture that seems most disturbing to any US citizen is the point that politics has reached in this country. And whether you consider yourself to be a Democrat, Independent, or Republican, it certainly doesn’t seem that 2010 will provide any improvement.

The latest poll by Gallup, taken on December 10 – 12, 2010 shows that 83% of Americans disapprove of the job that our US Congress is doing. This is the worst rating Congress has received in the 30 years that Gallup has been conducting the poll. Rather than being surprised by this result, one really has to wonder what those other thirteen-percenters that approve the job are thinking.

What is particularly upsetting is to hear leaders in Congress instructing party members to “do nothing”. Apparently, they can still draw a paycheck if they follow that advice. Did they ever hear that legislation involves listening, negotiation, and compromise? Aren’t they there to create legislation that will help this county perform better? Isn’t that their job?

Perchance it is time to for Congress to implement performance pay. They could create a commission plan based upon number of bills passed, with special incentives for high priority items, e.g. tax reform. If the recent threat of working during the Holidays was enough to expedite passage of so much legislation, think of what incentive pay could accomplish? Perhaps our Congressional Members in Washington would spend more time having a sandwich with members from the other party rather than having another fancy lunch with lobbyists.

This site has deliberately tried to avoid any political comment because civility seems to have been forgotten in our current discussions of opinion. Do you remember when talking politics was fun? Unfortunately, our current culture seems to be locked into “positions of principal”. What were once considered to be opinions that could become refined through further discussion now have transformed themselves into immutable principals.

Would that they would focus upon the principals of –

• Education, since America is ranked 17^th per Wikipedia
• Democracy, since America also ranks 17^th in that measure per Ranking America
• Healthcare, since America ranks 37^th per World Health Organization

Negotiation and compromise often lead to results that are less than ideal. Great deals are characterized by the result that everyone involved is a little disappointed. But as G. K Chesterton once said, “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing poorly.”

Maybe, with a bit of listening, we can accomplish worthwhile things once again, even if they are done “poorly”.

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The silence is deafening on this morning after Election Day. Over the past few months, the media has been filled with negative, mean-spirited advertisements telling us that some political candidate or other was closely related to Evil Incarnate. Thank God for the Mute Button. It became so disgusting that I would often leave the Mute on because I just didn’t want to hear the garbage. I never ever thought I would be so delighted to hear that familiar phrase of the drug ads, “Ask you doctor”, once again.

Why have we gotten to this point? Have people forgotten that civilization starts with the word civil. It doesn’t seem so long ago that people of opposing views could not only have a discussion about the issues, but they could even enjoy the experience. What has happened to our culture that we have arrived at the point of intolerance?

I suspect that there are three culprits.

1. Electronic Communications - We now dialog via bullets of information. We email, tweet, or facebook others who may be across town, across the hall, or across the room. We send packets of information without the nuance and subtlety that face-to-face dialog conveys. Without that subtlety, boundaries can be unknowingly crossed, sensitivities ignored. The seeds of discord can be planted.
2. Lack of Adequate Time - Our society seems to have reached a point where the rapidity of a response is valued more highly than the quality of the insights offered. Quality responses often require a bit of reflection, which takes time. Take too much time, however, and the decision has already been made. The topic has changed. People have moved on. As a consequence, events are controlled by knee-jerk reactions which are typically not our best answers.
3. Inflexibility - Locked into a box demanding quick responses based upon limited information, it is no wonder that the resulting decisions may not be the optimum choice. Once published, however, they have to be defended. This quickly leads to entrenched positions “based upon principle.” In other words, use some vague, dimly understood fundamental to justify a decision that had to be made too quickly. Stonewall the opponents out of the fear that flexibility can be interpreted as weakness rather than wisdom.

These constraints are especially evident within the political process. When talking to people from all around the world, you invariably hear that everyone seems dissatisfied with their own politicians. Yet these people are just like us. They just happen to be caught up in today’s strange environment where politicians want to be media stars, and media stars want to be entertainers. Its like we are all returning to sophomore year when the only goal in life was to be “popular”.

The traditional lines of responsibility are becoming blurred. In some ways, this microcosm, called politics, is bound to be dramatically influenced by constraints of communication, time, and flexibility. In a way, it acts as the canary in the mine, sending out an alert that our entire culture is being infected by the same fumes.

Despite these negatives, I am still happy to pay my taxes and live in this country. Politically, it is my job to search for information sources that attempt to limit their bias, read about and evaluate opposing viewpoints, reflect upon the implications of the various choices, make the choices that will be best for my grandchildren, completely ignore the incessant ads and robo-calls, and depress the mute button with abandon.

Hopefully, we will all learn to adjust to these constraints that technology has brought to our culture. It would be delightful to think that thoughtful reflection, polite conduct, serious communications, and the fun of negotiations could make a comeback not only in politics but in our society in general.

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Recently, one member of our family had a Zero Birthday. The family all gathered, and we had a wonderful evening to celebrate this special event. It wasn’t just another birthday, it was a Zero Birthday. It deserved special treatment.

We all seem to measure our lives by Zero Birthdays.

• At One and Zero, you’ve made it to the fifth grade and you’re not a baby anymore. You’ve become more confident of your likes and dislikes. You have friends, and you have fun. You’re doing more important chores that really help at home. Sometimes, the stories you imagine yourself are better than to ones you see on TV. You’re starting to learn that you are better at some things and worse at others.

• At Two and Zero, you’re not quite legal, but almost. The trauma of teenage years seem a distant memory, and you’ve developed a much better sense of yourself. You’ve moved away from home and consider yourself independent. You’re starting to realize that you might not have all the answers. You’ve just noticed that your parents suddenly seem to be getting a lot smarter.

• At Three and Zero, you know you’re a real adult, whatever that is. You’ve faced, made, and are making a number of life-defining choices, e.g. marriage, parenthood, education, career, location, and friends. You’ve got more choices to make, but you are comfortable making them. You know that there are people that really count on you. Life is very engaging, but can be very frenetic.

• At Four and Zero, you wonder if you’re starting to get ‘old’ because you’re no longer thirty-something. You’ve gotten to know yourself pretty well and are becoming comfortable with that picture. If you have teenagers, you are learning what wallpaper feels like, ever present but ignored. Your career is now defined, and you have achieved a few distinctions and bruises in the process. You are making more than you had planned, but you wonder if you are peaking. You measure yourself, probably too harshly, and wished you had attained more. Some friends always seem to be able to be doing more. Other friends have fallen away, but you know a select few will hang with you forever.

• At Five and Zero, the wrinkles in the mirror are sending you the message that the clock keeps ticking. You really don’t feel ‘old’, but you know that the jump in your step isn’t quite as bouncy. You’ve felt the sting of college tuitions, and the shock that your former teenagers are talking to, rather than at, you and are listening for your answer. Your kids act like they are adults, even though you picture them at age ten, or two. You’re ‘established’ in your community and have felt the joys of many achievements. You are reaping the fruits of your career, both positive and negative.

• At Six and Zero, you’re worried about this looming specter called retirement. Have you saved enough, and more importantly, what will you DO? You’re very engaged in a number of activities, and your daily schedule has many facets to it. You can’t imagine loosing that diversity, so you push it out of your mind. Your greatest delight is the arrival of grandchildren. You notice that the wrinkles have become deeper, and a couple of gray hairs have appeared in your eyebrows. You’ve decided to ignore the latest technical gizmo and have dismissed it as trivial. You’re learning the first names of a few new doctors.

• At Seven and Zero, you assume you’ll be offered the senior discount without asking for it. You’re not an ‘elder’, but you’re definitely a ‘senior’. You’ve begun to notice that younger people dismiss you, with kindness, or simply ignore you. You’re starting to think more and more about the big questions of life and living, and suddenly the questions seem to have become simpler, the answers more obvious. You know you are now officially ‘old’, and you know that your bones get stiff and creak where they never did. Your memory skills may not have ebbed, but you treat them as if they did. You hear the clock ticking more loudly in your mind.

• At Eight and Zero, you celebrate having made this milestone. Haven’t had the experience, so only conjecture is possible, but you must start hearing the word ‘elderly’ more and more. If you’re not committed to a certain amount of regular physical exercise, you’ll start overhearing the word, ‘frail’, when others nearby are conversing. Time for health maintenance activities has to take up more of your day.

• At Nine and Zero, ????

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There are certain rites of passage that one must experience as an active senior citizen in this US of A. You first sign up for the AARP because you want to become aware of what’s going on in Washington and elsewhere. Then, it gets serious when you become a card-carrying Medicare enrollee. After that, comes Downsizing and Volunteering. This holiday season we took the next step, the Artificial Christmas Tree.

For a number of years we heard the comments. ‘Everyone said’ that a real tree was simply too much of a hassle. Think of all the effort and strain involved. You have to - go to the lot, tie it to the car, get it off the car, fresh cut the base, set in water, set it into the stand, move it into the house, fill the base with water, clean up the needles, trim the odd branches, string the lights, and keep watering it throughout the season. As you get older, all of this hassle will become too much and you will simply have to change to an artificial tree.

We heard this advise for years, and gleefully ignored it. We’ve always had a real tree and cherish those memories - going to the tree lots of the church or Boy Scouts, then making the expedition to the tree farms with the kids and chopping our own, going to the tree farms with the dog when the kids were older, scaling back to the convenience of trees from a chain store. But the trees were real. The scent pervasive. We were proud to host the Balsams, Scotch Pines, Douglas firs, Frasers, and Nobles. It meant that the season had truly arrived.

Convinced that sooner or later we had to make the change, this year we faced this next rite of passage. We went out and bought a poly-something tree. Frankly, I was a bit embarrassed when I checked out at the register. I threw the box into the trunk of the car since there was no need to tie it on. Then, brought it home, set it up, spread out each little ‘branch’, plugged it in, and . . . Viola! Instant Christmas.

We brought in some pine branches to add a bit of scent, but I feel a bit less authentic this year. It is easier. It has a perfect shape. There is no need to water, but . . . somehow, I miss the hassle. I’m not sure I was ready for ‘easier’.

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we all have questions about ourselves
I know deep in my own DNA there has been a lifelong attraction to the sea
I know all my grandparents and great-grandparents were raised hard by the sea
I know that one grandfather spent his working life on the water
I know the sea is in my blood . . . but

visiting the actual towns where they were reared
where today’s ease and seaside charm masks the former remoteness
where they lived, played and worked without the gifts of electricity or automobiles
where the damp winter winds off the sea could knife through knitted wools
where their very survival depended upon the crops and the herds

hearing about a new land, what must they have felt
a land where your dreams were not held captive
a land where opportunity was the birthright of every citizen
a land where your father’s or grandfather’s school didn’t forever fix your status
a land where the ‘future’ beckoned

leaving their family, friends, and homestead
they traveled a sea and braved the strangeness of a new land
they dared to dream, then toiled, struggled, and stretched to reach for it
they gifted their own children with education and riches
they had not known

this strange new country
where slavery and slaves were imported from afar
where the conflict between slavery and equal opportunity was faced
where the principle of equality triumphed the ancient mindset of ownership
where the descendant of a slave could become an elegant First Lady

how strange a people we Americans are
rejecting even the very concept of royalty
allowing immigrants entry to share in our achievements
ignoring birthrights and peerages in favor of talents and efforts
rewarding achievements rather than lineage

America is far from perfect . . . but it is a place
where our children can still strive to surpass us
where we have the freedom to make even more progress against prejudice
where success, however we personally define it, is within our reach
where the dreams of a remote seaside boy and girl were fulfilled

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Lately, for an unrelated reason, I’ve had to visit a number of senior centers. Having never been to a senior center before, I had no idea what to expect. Would they act as a center for social services? Would they cater more to the frail than to the active? Would they be buzzing with social activities or quiet and staid? Would it be the type of place I could see myself ever becoming involved with?

The answer is - all of the above.

Although into my seventh decade, I still consider myself to be blessed with good health. Despite losing two teeth and gaining three scars last year, I still am a “second story man”, i.e. climbing the extension ladder, cleaning the gutters, and fixing the roof. In other words, “active”.

Would I want to become involved with a senior center? The answer is - it depends.

Like any social organization, it takes no more than five minutes to size up any particular senior center. In some, you felt the buzz as soon as you walked in the door.

At one center, bridge, ping-pong, book discussions, lectures and excursions were all in process at once. People were quite engaged. There was laughter and enthusiasm. The staff was welcoming and friendly. You not only felt that you could become involved, you hoped you could keep up.

Contrast that with another center where quiet pervaded the space. There were a number of people there, but only a few were even talking. Perhaps they were there for a mid-day meal. Possibly, this was the day that everyone else was off on an excursion. I do not know. I do know that the staff seemed quite defensive and ineffective. I do know that I would not want to return.

Ironically, these two centers were in located in similar demographics and less than five miles apart. Yet the difference was night and day. What that tells me is, if you are looking for a place to meet other seniors for activities and social interaction, shop around.

Like shoes, each of the different senior centers seemed to have their own style, comfort level, and purpose. I would shop until I located a place that fit mine - even if it meant another half-hour riding the bus.

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Sometimes I feel that I am committing a capital offense in today’s society. But I feel I must confess it outright and post it here today.

I do NOT have a Cell Phone! I do NOT Text! I am NOT on Facebook! I do NOT even Instant Message!

It is not that I am adverse to the technology. It neither confuses nor intimidates me. It is simply that I choose NOT to participate. I once used to pay for a cell plan that had more minutes than towers but did not provide a compelling solution to any real problem. In fact, by ringing in the midst of meetings and mealtimes, it often created a few.

When people know that they can access you directly, they seem to feel a sense of entitlement to your time. It is as if you have given them control over your priorities. You either accept their call, and risk the diversion from your priorities, or screen it out, and risk insulting them. If an issue is truly that critical, should you really rely on today’s cell phone technology?

Have you ever listened to the trivial conversations that people carry on over their cell phones? In fact, it is hard to avoid them since they frequently can invade your space in many trains, buses, or store aisles. Unfortunately, this increase in instant access seems to have become inversely proportional to the thoughtfulness of people’s answers. Is this technology really providing an enhancement?

I fully realize that my perspective is not popular. Today’s society seems to thrive on urgency, a fair amount of tension, and a high level of background noise. But does that lead to achievement? Does it lead to excellence? I think not.

It is difficult to escape the noise. People have devices plugged into their ears whenever they walk, ride, or fly. It is as if they are afraid of their own thoughts, of silence. It is as if they fear that they will be diminished if they are not constantly connected. As a result, our society seems to have lost the refinement in our thoughts that is the gift of reflection. The ‘urgent’ has superseded the ‘important’ to the point where the ‘important’ seems to get watered down to the point that it can blend with the ‘urgent’.

For example, compare two newspapers, USA Today and the New York Times. The former presents the news in sound bites, the latter with background and some perspective. Ironically, even USA Today is losing readership to the Web, which offers even briefer bullets.

My career was focused upon selecting and implementing technologies that would enable organizations to leapfrog, i.e. to do more with less. Technologies that did not provide extensive leverage were ignored or discarded.

Today, we seem to have become so enamored with what technology can do that we ignore the vital question of, “Should it?” The right answer, of course, will require some reflection . . . if anybody has the time.

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A couple of days ago, my friend, Ron, gave me a great gift. He showed me the way to the sea. Standing on the top of a bluff, we could look 150 feet straight down to see the waves lapping the shoreline. But without wings, those last 150 feet were intimidating. Ron said, “follow me.”

He stepped through a slight notch in the land, and a path opened to reveal a series of dips in the earth that acted like steps. These dips were well worn by others that had trod them before, and step-by-step we ventured down the side of the bluff. Climbing over a fallen tree that had been claimed by the wind, a set of train tracks and a rock wall, we found ourselves on the beach itself with the open sea before us. The sea did not disappoint.

Filling our lungs with the rich essence of low tide mixed with the clean scent of salt, I knew I had found my way home again. The sea has always been in my blood, which was leached from different European shorelines. Since my early years, I have always felt most at home with the sea - in it, on it, or under it.

Two days later, while walking along the beach, I encountered some old shipwrecks along the shoreline. It was then that I met Curt. He was warning me to stay off his property, which extended down the water’s edge - wherever the tide decided it would be that day. Curt’s family had always lived by the sea, and we started talking about the differences between the shores on the East Coast, where I grew up, and the West Coast, where Curt did.

I was relating to Curt how, on the East Coast, we would awake in the morning to the smashing sound of clam shells being dropped from above by the sea gulls, who would then have their feast. I was surprised that the same thing did not happen in the West. Curt revealed that it did happen when he was young, but now the clams have all but disappeared.

It was then I realized the biggest difference between the two coasts, i.e. railroads. Because the East Coast is generally irregular and flat, the railroads were located a few miles inland. That precious dancing line between land and sea, where nutrients and life thrive, has been bisected by the railroads on the West Coast. Faced with a continuous series of bluffs, the rails were built right along the shore. The nutrients are blocked, the clams are dying out, and even the orcas, much further up the food chain, are disappearing.

The sea is truly a gift, but like any living thing, it requires respect and nourishment. Ironically, someone could make the same observation about senior citizens.

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