Groundhog's Day

For someone who believes governments exist to help people (not just provide for the common defense, but also promote the general welfare) it is easy to be discouraged.

Not too much is for certain but, if anything is, it is that things change over and over again.

Take a look at Tiger Woods, Brett Favre and Gilbert Arenas in the sports world. Look at what happened to the Democrats in Massachusetts.

On the brighter side, remember more and more American voters each day are minorities and youths and, while all the attention today is on the birthers and tea party activists, they’re outnumbered. Someone has to wake up this new kind of silent majority and Obama is working hard to do just that. In the short run, if he can’t do it, nobody can. It’s winter today; soon it will be spring.
If everyone focuses on just what is in their interest, finds out which candidate supports their interest and then, most importantly, registers and votes in their interest, things will get better. They always do. But, then again, in about two or three years everything will get worse. This time, let’s be prepared for it, if we can.

Can It Get Any Worse? #2

A few weeks ago I sent out a blog. (It's short so I'll repeat it here.)

Can It Get Any Worse?


Some people are worried about their health care coverage We should be. If we don’t do something about it soon, it will get much worse. Obviously the millions who currently have no coverage may wonder how could it get worse. It could, and in a sense, has already gotten worse over the last twenty years. Furthermore with more people unemployed and underemployed, millions more people will join the ranks of the uninsured.

I will predict this much. Something regarding health insurance will pass the Congress this year. Whether it will be worth anything is the big question. Sometimes the concessions made to get enough votes to pass legislation water down the final product so much so that it is a hollow victory. Something is not always better than nothing. Our health care system doesn’t need a band-aid; it needs major surgery.

Yes, it is indeed a dilemma. We need something and we’ll get something. But will it do the job? Aye, that’s the rub.

The more things change (and they have since then) the more they remain the same. The bottom line is that I still believe something will pass and I add many may argue for years over whether it was a good thing or a bad one. Nevertheless, several times during the past few years experts counted Barack Obama out and they were wrong. Here's hoping that he pulls another victory out of the jaws of defeat. He has the skill to do it. It remains to be seen if the American public have the capacity to recognize the truth.

Can It Get Any Worse?

Some people are worried about their health care coverage We should be. If we don’t do something about it soon, it will get much worse. Obviously the millions who currently have no coverage may wonder how could it get worse. It could, and in a sense, has already gotten worse over the last twenty years. Furthermore with more people unemployed and underemployed, millions more people will join the ranks of the uninsured.

I will predict this much. Something regarding health insurance will pass the Congress this year. Whether it will be worth anything is the big question. Sometimes the concessions made to get enough votes to pass legislation water down the final product so much so that it is a hollow victory. Something is not always better than nothing. Our health care system doesn’t need a band-aid; it needs major surgery.

Yes, it is indeed a dilemma. We need something and we’ll get something. But will it do the job? Aye, that’s the rub.

The Week Michael Jackson Died

Michael Jackson died. I’m told by many that he was a great entertainer. I have no right to judge whether or not that is true. I assume it is. In my opinion, the greatest entertainer of my generation was Sammy Davis, Jr. He was a great dancer, singer, comedian, impressionist and actor. There wasn’t much fanfare when Sammy died. I don’t know much of anything about what is now called “pop”. I do know that the definition of pop has changed a lot in the last fifty years. I also know that I know a lot less of what is going in the world because Michael died. With exhaustive research I have found out:

1. that the Supreme Court overruled the lower court’s decision in the white firefighters case in New Haven


2. that there was a coup in Honduras by the military overthrowing the country’s president


3. that Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison


4. that the Iran Council certified the election


5. that police officials were killed in Kandahar


6. that the ruling party in Argentina was defeated


7. that Russia began war games near Georgia


8. that college loan payments have been lowered


9. that the Governor of South Carolina is a hypocrite


10. that the NY State Senate refuses to meet, etc. etc. etc.


11. mostly I know that every day thousands are being killed in Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and in our own cities people are starving.


12. that American troops have been pulled out of Iraqi cities


13. that some innocent people are still in Guantanamo

With all due respect to a great entertainer, I had to dig to find out about the things I listed above.

What’s the point? I guess I just don’t get it. I also don’t get why the O.J. Simpson trial was such a big deal or why a person named Petersen killing one or more of his wives is more important than global warming or health care in this country.

Certainly the truth as to how Michael died is important but is it that much more important than the hundreds who have been murdered since I began writing this blog?

The Man in the Chair

"Pay no attention to the man sitting down in the big chair."

It is a little different from that great line in the Wizard of Oz i.e. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" but just as in that movie, you SHOULD pay attention to the man.

The man in the chair can be seen twice in our waiting room where Ana works. They are similar versions of statues on Massachusetts Avenue, NW between 10th and 11th of Samuel Gompers with some Greek gods in the background lounging behind him. Mister Gompers was the first president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) - the forerunner of today's AFL-CIO. Since this company's labor niche is an important part of what we do here, I submit he is important to us.

He was born in London, England on March 5, 1850, the son of a cigar maker. As a young boy he moved with his family to New York City in 1863. He became a U.S. citizen in 1872. Before coming to the United States he already had become a cigar maker and he joined the Cigarmakers and became a leader in the union.

In 1886 he was elected the first president of the AFL, a position he held for almost forty years. He was a far too complex man to sum up in a brief blog but he certainly was a major player in building and developing the American Labor Movement.

I didn't have anything to do with putting in the statuary I spoke about at 11th and Massachusetts, but I did get an assignment to "clean it up" some time in the early 1980's. Mostly pigeons and gulls, but also some humans, found the statue and the surrounding area a great place to relieve themselves. Lane Kirkland (then AFL-CIO president) noticed and he and Tom Donahue (AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer) asked me to speak to the Department of Parks to see what could be done about the mess that Sam was residing in. It did just that and working with some great people at the National Park Service found the original firm that created the work of art in Corona, Queens, New York and commissioned them to freshen up their creation. After months of haggling and cajoling with some financial contributors from the labor movement to sweeten everything, we got Sam looking almost as good as he does in Ana's waiting room.

He Had a Dream

I know I'm not going to have the time to continue doing these blogs as often as I have but today is a special day for me. Not because it's Income Tax Day or the day of the ridiculous tea bag dunking charade, but because it's the anniversary of the birth of A. Philip Randolph on April 15, 1889.

He was the founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the principal organizer of the Civil Rights March made famous by Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech. "You could look it up."

The personal note for me was because I merged the Sleeping Car Porters in 1978 with the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks and while I was at the AFL-CIO was in charge of commissioning a bust be done of him at Union Station in Washington. You can see it across from the waiting room seats near the entrances. The powers that be at AMTRAK wanted to hide it someplace "so it wouldn't be vandalized." I told them "we want it to be where people can see it and Phil won't let his bust be vandalized." As you can see when you're in Union Station, I won the argument.

The Pitch

Do not despair Nats fans. They play 162 games each year, these days. (In my youth it was only 154.)

The everyday players are showing that they are competitive. The problem is pitching and, as in sales, it is always about pitching. A great mathematician, Lawrence Peter Berra, once said "Pitching is ninety percent of the game and the other half is hitting, catching and fielding."

Yogi was right,as usual, though the numbers don't add up correctly. What is also right is that this company and its products have to be pitched by all of us or we might as well be sitting "on the bench." You've got to be in the game to accomplish anything.

As the man says "not a sermon, just a thought."