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Archive for the ‘Current Events’ Category

Binghamton

Posted in Current Events, tagged , , , , , , , on April 4, 2009| Leave a Comment »

A Return to RootsI live in a part of New York state that doesn’t normally get a lot of headlines.  We’re somewhat rural with a few smaller  cities scattered across what is called the Southern Tier  that runs along the NY/Pennsylvania border.  

We have Corning which is known for its glass industry including a world-class museum.  There’s Ithaca with  Cornell and Ithaca College.  Then there’s my hometown of Elmira where Mark Twain spent his summers, writing many of his books from his study overlooking the valley, and is buried here.  Home of the late, great Ernie Davis.  We’re also known for our prisons.  I can barely contain my pride.

Then a little east there’s Binghamton.  

It was primarily known as the birthplace of IBM but after yesterday will be known in the national mind as the location of yet another murderous rampage.

14 killed.

I don’t know much about the assailant and I really don’t need to hear a lot.  I’m sure there will be all kinds of new info today and  in the week ahead, all profiling a troubled soul.  Unfortunately, we’ve heard it all before.  Too many times.

I don’t have any answers to the scourge of mass killings.  I have sympathy for the families who lost members.   I have empathy for those who witnessed and survived, many immigrants to this country.  Their terror and bewilderment that such a thing could happen in their chosen home is palpable.

And I have a degree of sorrow and empathy for the killer.  While I can’t understand how a person could be driven to such violence , I can imagine the alienation and rage that ran through his mind.  I don’t know his circumstances or what might have possibly tripped that final switch but he obviously lived in a troubled state of mind without the necessary coping mechanisms.  

That doesn’t excuse or justify his actions.  It only brings to mind the scores of people that live among us with that same anger, that same sense of separation.  The vast majority live this side of the line but more and more cross it and we’re left watching the news, horrified.

And you hope and you pray that this time will be the last.

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Something to Think About…

Posted in Current Events, tagged , on April 3, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Reach Out

                  “The 500 richest people in the world, according to a U.N. calculation a few years ago, earned more than the 416 million poorest people. It’s worth bearing in mind that the first group bears a measure of responsibility for the global economic mess but will get by just fine, while the latter group has no responsibility and will suffer the worst consequences.”

 -Nicholas Kristof,  NY Times,  April 2, 2009


You know, you get so tied up with the details and worries of your own life that when you read something like the article from which the clip above was taken, you realize how much our life is spent in pettiness and folly.  My problems seem infinitely smaller by comparison with the plight of much of the world and I look at the comforts I am afforded with a greater appreciation.
 I know we all must do more and perhaps it is the shame brought by reading such things and seeing the effects of this poverty all over the world that will bring about the needed changes.  At least, I hope.  The recent past has shown shame to be not so effective in changing bad behavior so I am bit pessimistic.
But give this article by Nicholas Kristof a read and think a bit about how you can help bring about change.  Then let someone else know.  Let me know.  Like the painting above, just reach out…

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The Heretic’s Uncertainty

Posted in Current Events, tagged , , , on March 29, 2009| 1 Comment »

Out of ChaosI don’t know if it’s sad commentary on the world or just myself but I have started to have an extreme distrust of anyone who is ultra confident in their ability to predict what the future will bring.  Be it a politician predicting doom and gloom if the opposing party comes to power or an evangelist spouting that the rapture is imminent or even the pundits on ESPN during the NCAA tournament, guys like Digger Phelps, who say definitively that this team or that team will run roughshod over the opposition.  Okay, Digger Phelps being compared to someone saying the end is near is out of line but his certainty is the same even if more trivial.

I used to defer to those with lofty positions and supposed knowledge of things beyond my little world but have come to the realization that these people are as clueless as anyone, myself included.  It’s just that there is no economic advantage in saying that you don’t really know, that you can’t be sure.  Who would send a check to a televangelist who couldn’t definitively offer you eternal salvation?  Who would vote for a politician who wasn’t absolutely positive  that his judgement was correct in all matters?  

The problem with our dependence on this absurd over-confidence is that many good and valid ideas are kicked to the curb, never heard because they are drowned out by the din of the “experts” pounding their chests and yelling that yes, they alone have the answers that we seek.  Political discourse has become a matter of who can turn up their volume most.  The sectors of religion that grow fastest spout the loudest, most extreme versions of their beliefs.

And this over-confidence doesn’t apply to believers alone.  To me, the atheist is little different than the most ardent believer.  Both have an absolute belief that their view is correct.  Both claim to know that the eternal is or isn’t.  Take your pick.

Me?  As I’ve said before, the only thing I’m certain about is my uncertainty.  And I guess in some cases down through history that would make one a heretic.

Amen to that, brother…

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Entitlement

Posted in Current Events, tagged on March 24, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Indomitable Will

I’m showing the painting above, Indomitable Will, because I think it illustrates a point that has been racing around in my head for a long time, one that has a lot to do with elemental issues of who we are and what we deserve in this world.  

Like everybody else, I have been somewhat engulfed by the fire of the populist rage over the AIG bonuses, not to mention those much larger bonuses at Merrill Lynch and others.  It’s not the size of these bonuses or the sheer audacity of those who to try to defend them that really bothers me. 

The part that bothers me most is the underlying sentiment that plagues our country and blinds these particular fools to their own greedy actions.  I’m talking about sense of entitlement that many here feel.   The feeling that we “deserve” this or that.  The feeling that simply by being we deserve a big house, a new SUV, all the latest gadgets and clothes.  That we deserve everything we see.

Now I know I’m beginning to sound like the old curmudgeon in his front lawn, waving my fist at the kids riding their bikes in front of his house but this is such an obvious flaw in our collective character as of late that it can’t be downplayed.

We are entitled to nothing but the chance to accomplish our goals on a fair and level playing field.  We are entitled to the right to work hard  if we so choose.  We are entitled to have our voices heard.

We are entitled to simply be.

For me, the painting above says that.  The tree is us and it exists in this world with the right to simply be.  To stand tall.  To feel the wind pass over it.  To see the sky.

A chance to be.

That is its only entitlement.

I know this is incomplete and easily thrown aside, but that is the downside of writing  a blog off the cuff, as thoughts fall out of a feeble brain.  But hopefully the gist of what I’m trying to say comes through…

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Basic Cable Beatdown

Posted in Current Events, Video, tagged , , , , , on March 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

jonstewartevisceratescnbcsantellionLong night.  Epic television, ending with seeing the Syracuse Orange finally overcome the Connecticut Huskies in 6 overtimes.  At the end, the teams were so exhausted that at times they looked like they were on the Bataan death march.  Great, great game- an instant classic.

But the highlight of the night was not a slam dunk or a buzzer-beater.

On Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart gave CNBC money guru Jim Cramer a basic cable ass-whipping.  He dressed him down from the very beginning and never let up.  But it was a controlled, logical beatdown, not the hyperbolic confrontations we’ve become so accustomed to seeing on politically-based cable television.

I’m not going to go into every detail of the interview as it’s available online and should be seen in full.  Stewart basically called out CNBC and Cramer for their complicity in enabling those who would sell the  safety of the long-term investments of multitudes of investors for a short-term windfall.

Cramer’s defense was tepid at best, leaving my wife to finally turn to me and say, “What a pussy.”

It’s a sad commentary that such an important and serious discussion has to be addressed on Comedy Central.  Maybe this points out the need for more regulation in the financial sector.  What I mean by this is that journalism should be self-regulating by its very nature but when it is compromised to reperesent the interests of one group over another, it no longer  serves its intended function and, in fact, becomes detrimental.  If journalism cannot maintain a degree of self-regulation then how can anyone expect the financial world to do so?

Even today, there has been barely a mention of this much-touted showdown between Stewart and Cramer.  On CNN, when there was a mention the host still didn’t get it, portraying Cramer as merely a weatherman making forecasts.  

The difference is that the weatherman can’t manipulate the weather in the way that Cramer claimed he could manipulate the market as  a hedge-fund manager in a 2006 video.  That’s a big difference…

Sorry if this is a little disjointed.  I’m a little tired from a late night.  Anyway, I’ll leave you with a very funny parody of Glenn Beck from Stephen Colbert.  Here is……………THE DOOM BUNKER!

Go, Orange!

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And the Road Rises…

Posted in Current Events, tagged , on February 25, 2009| 2 Comments »

And the Road Rises...Last night’s address by President Obama was, in my opinion, a bravura performance, a great piece of oratory that informed and inspired.  It was an interesting juxtaposition between the President’s speech and that of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who delivered the Republican response.  Obama spoke with great confidence in a way that treated us as adults whereas I felt that Jindal was channeling Mr. Rogers speaking to children in his neighborhood.

 I’m not a political wonk so I’m sure there will be those who will dispute this but I felt Obama effectively laid out an outline for recovery and at every turn trumped objections raised by the opposition, last night in the form of Jindal, who offered nothing more than we’ve heard from the GOP in the past eight years.  His claim that they were the party of fiscal conservatism once again seemed to ring hollow when many of the same members of  Congress who were at the forefront of the spending spree of the past administration are still there.  

There were a couple of things that stood out for me.  Obama’s assertion that dropping out of high school was no longer an option was strong.  One hopes this forceful push for education will indeed reach down and pull up  kids who are struggling within the current system and will inspire them to strive for achievement and responsibility in their lives.  We’ll all be better off in the long run if this can  be achieved.

His vow for renewable energy was music to my ears.  We have waffled on this subject for 30 years and have paid dearly for our hesitancy in moving forward on achieving a level of energy independence.  Now is the time for this type of investment in new level of energy technology.

I also liked Obama’s approach near the end when he tried to stir optimism by taking the view that while this time may present a great and dangerous challenge, it is also a great opportunity to forge a new and better future.  That’s an important perspective to maintain, in this instance and in our private lives– in every crisis there is opportunity.  Lessons to be learned.  New ways of seeing and doing things.

If life is a journey, we may sometimes find ourselves in a place where the road seems to end, seems to have little hope.  It’s at that point we must remember that the road will rise, as will we.

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