Sister Carol
Great teachers change lives and Sister Carol is one of four (excluding mentors who were not in the school system, like my parents) whose positive impact on my life continues to be felt, everyday.

She read this book to our class many years ago:

I can still remember sitting in the sunny classroom that day, listening to her voice, watching her turn each page, at first wondering why she would read us a child's book, and then so deeply engaged in the ensuing discussion that I can still feel myself back in that seat on that day.

Today I saw The Giving Tree on a list of banned books.  To be clear, this banning effort appears to have come from the 'left,' demonstrating that ignorance is not a partisan phenomena.  My question is this:  how can anyone look at the world we live in today and decide of all the many conflicts we face I choose to devote my energies to efforts to ban books?  Fundamentally misguided, in my view.

Sister Carol taught us to listen and engage in conversation with others, including those who see the world differently.  In a democracy we oppose ideas with better arguments, not efforts to silence the ideas themselves.  No one has a monopoly on the truth.  No individual, no interest group or party, no sect or region or nation has a monopoly on the truth.  As Sister Carol taught, and demonstrated by example, we all need each other in our search for truths in our lives.  Thank you Sister Carol.

Soulwords
Felt like writing a poem today.  Not sure what I produced counts as a poem, but here it is. Part of me feels like I am confusing a prayer with a poem.  The link at the end is because I imagine this poem in a frame with the David Foster Wallace 'This is Water' commencement speech playing over it.

Choose to Think

celebrate life, be kind

at water coolers and with bank tellers

every conversation is sacred

celebrate life; be kind

choose to engage with love

there is no benefit to having enemies

Celebrate life: Be Kind

Feel the heartbeat of the universe within and without you

Be thankful and present, curious and calm

 

celebrate life…be kind

choose to think…

Rooting for LaRose and Clyde
Two local legislators trying to do the right thing.  LaRose and Clyde are taking the right first steps and I applaud them for taking on a real challenge like this one.  We need them to succeed.

Yaz Statue at Fenway
Carl Yastrzemski was my hero growing up (in that rarified boyhood world where people we have never met and know pretty much nothing about can somehow become a role model).

I have often wondered why the Red Sox have so infrequently highlighted Yaz since he retired.  Perhaps he is just private, as many have said.  But when I heard this news, I was delighted. 

This is the photo the statue will be modeled on...Yaz waving to the crowd just before his last at-bat.

Okay, heroes.  An odd thing.  My room growing up had a huge Yaz poster (yes, I still have it) and dozens of other pictures from Sports Illustrated all over the walls.  I would read the sports page each day and pay special attention to any Yaz news. 

I am not sure how it started, but I came to appreciate the WAY he played the game.  Later I learned he is a Republican; it is possible I might not even like him if we met (since Republican can mean a lot of things, from the brilliant Senator Danforth to, well, just about the lowest form of creature on the planet: think Perry, Bachman, Pat Robertson just for starters). 

Yaz was not a gifted athlete.  Of course, he was a great athlete, with awesome natural skills.  But he was no Barry Bonds.  He had to work hard, day in and day out, every season and off season, for 23 years as a pro and all the years before that.  And he never gave less than 100%.  He did not (as far as I could tell) judge others, scream at teammates, or let stardom go to his head.  He just wanted to be the best player and and person he could be.  I liked that.

My grandmother never pronounced his name right, and she would always criticize him to try to get me going.  It usually worked and we loved talking Red Sox.  My Dad liked to remind me that Ted Williams was better.  Of course, he is correct.  Of course, I never admitted that.  We loved talking Red Sox.  My mother and I watched so many Sox games together over the years, that loving Yaz feels like something wel love doing together.

I played baseball.  Like Yaz I played the outfield and, like him, I was an EXCELLENT fielder with a strong and accurate arm.  Unlike him, I was a mediocre hitter once I got to HS varsity level.  But I always tried to be like him and it made me a better player and better person.

Thanks Red Sox for the statue.  I look forward to seeing it and someday I would like to meet Yaz, but that will likely never happen.  I wish my mother, father, grandmother and I could have all sat in my parents great room for an evening with some food and beers talking baseball.  That would have been very cool.  Nanny would have loved it.

Jesus Don't Like Killin' No Matter What The Reason For
The Colbert Report featured a fantastic performance by, and short interview with, John Prine today.  Prine is re-issuing his Grammy winning album The Missing Years.  My favorite Prine work is on his self-titled album, John Prine. 

Hard to say which song on that album I like best, with Hello In There, Angel From Montgomery, Illegal Smile and well all of them, but the one that always stands out for me (and is the only song I can really play on the guitar) is Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore.

While digesting Reader's Digest
In the back of a dirty book store,
A plastic flag, with gum on the back,
Fell out on the floor.
Well, I picked it up and I ran outside
Slapped it on my window shield,
And if I could see old Betsy Ross
I'd tell her how good I feel.

Chorus:
But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.

Well, I went to the bank this morning
And the cashier he said to me,
"If you join the Christmas club
We'll give you ten of them flags for free."
Well, I didn't mess around a bit
I took him up on what he said.
And I stuck them stickers all over my car
And one on my wife's forehead.

Repeat Chorus:

Well, I got my window shield so filled
With flags I couldn't see.
So, I ran the car upside a curb
And right into a tree.
By the time they got a doctor down
I was already dead.
And I'll never understand why the man
Standing in the Pearly Gates said...

"But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
We're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more."

 

Here is John Prine playing Your Flag Decal....  This song has been important to me for a long time, as has a lot of John Prine's work. 

I have one old friend to thank for introducing me to John Prine many years ago.  A friend from NYC whom I met repairing retired coal miners' roofs in West Virginia in the summer of 1978 as a Passionist Volunteer.  I have not seen him since that summer and all I can remember is his name was John, he taught me my first three chords, and introduced me to John Prine.  Thanks John.

Employers Have Upperhand (is that new?)
Columnist Robert Samuelson, no friend of organized labor, provides a sobering assessment of where we are on this labor day. 

He argues today we are observing another epoch defining change of regime.

In his view we once lived in a wild west regime before the Great Depression.  This was when all the sound-bites about the power of an unregulated free market were enshrined in policies that nearly destroyed both the American dream and the free market system.

Then he claims we moved to what he calls the ‘regulated and administered regime,’ which he notes as starting after WWII to avoid reminding us that it started in response to the Great Depression in the 1930s…before WWII even started.

Today, he sees us in a new regime with no name.  It would seem to be the responsibility of an author arguing that there we ought to use his three consecutive regimes framework to think about our situation…to actually name the current era. 

Instead he calls it simply a ‘confusing mix of old and new” and describes is a return to the wild west, where workers will be described as ‘free agents’ to communicate that the regime (that is, the rules of the game) have eroded worker power while sounding like it is a good thing for the workers themselves.

His focus is on how long workers stay with the same company.  In wild west 1.0 ‘less than a third of manufacturing workers in 1913 had been at their current jobs for more than five years,’ while in 1973 half had been.  Here is what he expects the future to look like.

‘Workers can’t be too picky, because their power has eroded.  [quoting another economist] The new compact isn’t about being nice.  It’s based on an understanding that a company is its talent, that low performers will be cut, and that the way to attract talent is to offer appealing opportunities.

Today less than 7% of the private workforce is unionized, down from 30% in 1945 (and even down from 10% in the wild west of 1929).  The share of social profit that goes to labor continues to decline, despite rising worker productivity.  According to Samuelson, ‘the private welfare state’ created after WWII to ‘protect millions from job and income loss’ began to ‘shred’ in 1981 and is nearly gone today.  A sobering and sad note to strike on Labor Day 2013.

Reading Today's Beacon...

 

 Still Not Accurate to Claim ‘Both Sides are Doing It’
AP ran a story describing a house divided, where one party chose to decline their invitations to the official ceremonies commemorating King’s speech and organized their own events in isolation. 

“Fifty years ago, Democrats and Republicans stood shoulder to shoulder, demanding equal rights for blacks. But during the past week of commemorations of this formative American moment, the two parties barely interacted, each organizing its own events and delivering its own interpretations of King’s dream.”

Sadly, AP framed the story as if both sides were equally culpable.  According to AP the Democrats, who hold the White House so hold the power to convene the official ceremonies, contributed by inviting the NAACP, Urban League, and the MLK Jr Center for Nonviolent Social Change, because (according to a Republican quoted in the AP story) these groups are fighting against voter ID laws that target blacks, fighting to restore the Voting Rights Act, and oppose both ‘stop and frisk’ and ‘stand your ground’ laws.

I am reminded of Coates comment that Republicans do not have an image problem with minority communities…they have a problem problem.  If these are the issues made salient by the leaders of minority communities it does not seem inappropriate for these to be front and center on this day.  Nor does it seem inappropriate for these to be framed as nonviolent ‘fights’ on a day commemorating Dr. King.

To claim that inviting these groups and highlighting these issues is the reason Republicans declined their invitations is to suggest there is no value in hearing from the other side of the aisle.  This is a fundamentally anti-democratic position, consistent with the Republican leadership position for the past six years, and it is unfortunate that AP feels compelled to frame this one-sided abrogation of leadership responsibility as ‘both sides are doing it.’ 

Unfortunate and inaccurate…with a (however unintentional) partisan edge threatening both the possibility and desirability of democratic decision making.

One side declines their invitation to join the official ceremonies because they are unwilling to hear about the issues that concern leaders in minority communities and holds their own event instead, safely insulated from pesky disagreement.  It is time to call this what it is and vote accordingly.

Do Not Strike Syria
President Obama is seeking Congressional approval.  Good idea, as far as it goes.  But I am deeply concerned about our willingness to violate international law in order to send a symbolic message about the need to respect international law. 

 

I am not sure what I would do, were I in the president’s shoes, since innocent lives are being lost.  Is this Kosovo or Iraq?  But my gut tells me that if our goals is merely to send a symbolic message…better to boost respect for the law by respecting the law.

Support Value Creators
Workers on the ground, in the classroom, on the beat put in the sweat equity that creates value.  Unions are far from perfect instruments, suffering many of the same flaws we see in other large bureaucratic organizations (like insurance companies, government agencies, the military—waste, corruption, tin ear), but they did move us substantially closer to recognizing and rewarding those who create value in our systems that distribute the social profit that results.