The Cost of Health

I posted on Facebook that Dianne had to have her gallbladder removed last Friday.  It was a simply and informative post to let a lot of people know what was going on.  So I was surprised that the next time I logged on Facebook suggested that I add a link for friends to make a donation.  I simply let that pass but I have been thinking about it.  I know the final bill even after insurance will be a lot of money and it will be something that will set us back a little bit in our most recent plans but wow, Facebook must have a great number of people having to collect money to pay their medical bills.  Even in the age of the Affordable Care Act.  What struck me today was a local sports commentator and former coach retweeted a GoFundMe page for an Iraqi War Veteran and Police officer in Michigan who is being treated for cancer.  Here is link that I assume is legit: Dave Imber. 

So I got to thinking about even having good insurance having an emergency medical condition can be a life altering event even if it routine because of the financial impact. A few years ago a Kaiser Family Foundation report found that one in three Americans had trouble with medical debt. Many of those are insured, still had crushing medical bills, after paying premiums that are difficult each month.  Gerri Detweiler, director of consumer education at Credit.com  wrote “Just because you have good insurance that doesn’t mean you won’t have large out-of-pocket costs."  And that is the problem.

Insurance is confusing, high deductible policies are becoming the norm, in-network/out-or-network are getting more confusing, and the often you have to fight lone and hard when something is out of whack.   I recently had a bill that was coded wrong and saved over $600 on the bill.  I called several times and finally got someone to listen to me and figured out the problem.  That was an education process for me.  It appears that you can be in your network, you can have a doctor order, and your insurance can know what you are doing and depending on where you get your work done the cost of the exact same procedure in the same zip code.  That is amazing.  What is more amazing that we don't know the prices before we go to the hospital so we can't comparison shop.  We can do better. 

So many people rage against what the rest of the world does with single payer.  While it would raise our taxes it levels the field so that our police and veterans or hardworking Americans can afford to have their health taken care of without a system made to confuse and intimidate the consumer.   So as we prepare to see exactly how much Dianne's medical condition costs I will say her care was wonderful, the doctors, nurses, and aides were all amazing and helpful.  So there is a part of me struggling to put a price on that. 

And the Youth Shall See Visions

In May of 1963 the Civil Rights movement had stalled in Birmingham Alabama as Bull Conner and the city leaders had made protests more difficult with long jail sentences for those who challenged the racist environments.  The adults feared losing their jobs, families and homes.  But high school children had no jobs to lose.  So they walked out of class, marched on the town and added many new voices to the calls for justice.  Conner used fire hoses on them, and brought down violence.  Those images were brought to all of America through print media and brave photographers who stood on the streets even as police tried to stop them.  Those photos of young people being attacked by the racist government officials led to a change in attitude for many in the country and marked a turning point in the cause.

In 1969 it was young people who frequented the Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich village that rebelled against the oppressive actions of the police and the homophobic culture of the time.  Sylvia Rivera was an 18 year old drag queen the helped launch gay liberation groups and worked to helped homeless gay youth was at Stonewall when the riot broke out in May of '69.  This was a turning point in gay rights and opened the door for many to come out in support of the right of gay people to live openly.  It also led to better programs to help those homeless youth, often kicked out of home for being gay, to get help and not have to resort to hustling or fall prey to the streets.

In the late sixties, as America was being torn apart by the assassinations of the 60s and the debate over our involvement in Vietnam it was young people who led the way.  In May of 1970 four of those young people lost their lives on the campus of Kent State in Ohio, as National Guard members opened fire on a group of protesters.  The country heard their voice and in less than 3 years the United States withdrew from that conflict.

In the 1980s I am proud to say I was part of a movement that challenged our country to stop investing in South Africa which supported the Apartheid government.  While there were a diversity of voices that were out there, young people in high school and college educated the public while protesting on campuses, at businesses and to the government. 

In every major cultural change movement of my life time, youth voice was there, loud and unafraid of the consequences to themselves by the authorities that stood in the way of change.  So to see 100s of thousands of young people march this past weekend in Washington and around the world to help seek solutions to the problem of gun violence and mass shootings is not a surprise.  It is a continuation of what I have known to be true my entire career of working with young people.  Young people will act when given the opportunity if they have the passion.  The school shooting at in Parkland, Florida was the spark because those students, many who have been taught to stand up for what they believe, many supported by parents in their beliefs, gave us a lesson in how to be brave.  Attacked by those who share the false narrative that any gun restriction is a violation of the 2nd amendment and an attempt at confiscation, likened to Nazis by those who fear the very conversation about the role of guns in our society, and laughed at by a right-wing noise machine that uses simplistic humor for cheap cheers from their listeners, these students were not stopped.  A metaphor played out on Saturday as one speaker vomited from the adrenaline pumping through her, scared to speak to so many, but persisted through and told truth to power.

Movements happen because someone or a small group of someones decide that their goal is worth the effort, the ridicule and the costs.  Often those movements are led by people who are looking to the future they want to build.  Young people's voice have always been important.  If you disagree with these youth, listen to them and answer them where they are wrong.  They are able to learn more about the issues.  If you agree with them, support them and teach them how to respond with class, information and clear vision.  If you choose to just ridicule them, you are risk for being on the wrong side of history.  In the words of a 20th century prophet, Mr. David Bowie:

And these children that you spit on

As they try to change their worlds

Are immune to your consultations

They're quite aware of what they're going through.

Scared Straight Doesn't Work, Let's Stop Pretending it Does

If you grew up in the 1980s and 90s you will remember the JUST SAY NO campaign spearheaded by then First Lady, Nancy Reagan.  Televisions commercial were laughable, in one someone held up an egg and said "This is your brains", cracks it and lets the contents hit a hot frying pan saying "This is your brain on drugs, any questions?" This like the push a generation earlier when it came the health risks of smoking, tried to get kids to see the long-term consequences of their short-term enjoyment. Maybe one of the most of the most celebrated attempts at scaring kids was  Scared Straight, a program that brought young people into prisons to basically be abused verbally by members of the prison community both guards and inmates. This became a TV show and the program spread around the country like wildfire.  Often the inmates got considerations for trying to put fear into the hearts of the young people.  The main groups brought in were already petty offenders but there were also attempts to scare students before they got involved with crimes. 

So my senior seminar class was about persuasion so I wrote my final paper on the efficacy of these kinds of messages.  What I found was the overwhelming evidence that these approaches simply do not work.   While they made people feel good the students neither believed the drug program educators nor the inmates when it came to the possible outcomes.   In fact, while I was writing the paper the Scared Straight crowd did a follow up show ten years after the first show.  What we found was that many of the kids who were in the first programs continued to commit crimes, a few escalated in seriousness and a couple were free of any further criminal activity.  (for one though it seemed he was just better at not getting caught).  I was stunned, it was like made for my thesis.  However, more than 30 years later and many more publications on why this is a bad idea there are still kids being dragged to prisons, pictures of black lungs on cigarette packs and just the other day the President of the United States suggested television and internet commercials targeting young people saying, "The best way to beat the drug crisis is to keep people from getting hooked in the first place," President Trump said. "This has been something I have been strongly in favor of spending a lot of money on great commercials showing how bad it is." he went on to say, "So that kids seeing those commercials during the right shows on television or wherever, the internet, when they see these commercials they (will say), 'I don't want any part of it.' That is the least expensive thing we can do. Where you scare them from ending up like the people in the commercials and we will make them very, very bad commercials. We will make them pretty unsavory situations and you have seen it before and it is had an impact on smoking and cigarettes." 

But it didn't work before and it won't work again.  And what is a real serious issue is that many opioid addicts are becoming that way because of non-medical use of prescription pain killers.  Doctors are very quick to prescribe addictive pain killers as pharmaceutical companies have made them cheaper, easier to take and lucrative for doctors.  There are even some doctors that are so free with prescriptions that they become defacto drug dealers for people who once used pain killers for legitimate treatment but became hooked.  Street opioids are also more available because there is a clear market for it and heroin is making a major resurgence in the street drug market. 

Combating the opioid problem is something that will require a lot of thought, a lot of cooperative work and a real  federal, state and local action on the part of law enforcement, public health and the private medical profession.  It will take a serious look at the suppliers, (though the President just wants to apply the death penalty to them) but also the foundation of this crisis.  We must investigate the genesis of people's addiction, and work to stop the origin and gateway for so many.  People are dying, not because they don't know the results of drug use, nor that they are just bad people.  It is because the class of drugs in question are tailor made to interact with our nervous system in a way that leads to addiction.  It is time we take it seriously and leave the eggs for your local diner. 

Remembering Old Friends.

In the last few weeks, two people who I went to high school with have passed away. 

Heather Brenno left the world after a battle with cancer.  We were never really close but in my hometown everyone shared at least a little of a connection if you grew up in the 70s and 80s. She was loved by many and I am probably lessor of a person for not knowing her better. 

But the stunning death to me was that of Hany Ghaleb whose cause of death is listed as natural causes.  Hany moved to Ogdensburg right around the start of junior high school as I recall.   We were close friends for part of his time there and then he moved away before graduation.  However recently, through the magic of social media, we reconnected.  Last summer he gave me advice for some friends coming to the Cooperstown region for a baseball tourney with their sons for food and fun.  At the time I talked about coming back into the area and getting together, and yet we never made plans.

My peers are becoming used to saying good-bye to our parents.  It is not shocking to hear of one of us losing a mother or father.  But it is shocking that our classmates passed at such a relatively young age.  One of the things that it brought up for me is how I have let so many formerly important connections in my life fade into the background.  I am jealous at times when I see some of my fellow Blue Devils from O'burg hanging out, sharing time together on vacation and just being part of each other's lives.  I take full responsibility for my failure of staying in touch.  While social media has helped me have a nominal connections, I often feel on the outside looking into the lives of some of the people have used to be an important part of my daily existence.

So perhaps this will motivate me to reach out, I am not sure, but what I am sure of is that I have moved into a new stage of life.  I am thankful that technology will allow me to reach back and maybe reignite old friendships.  It may be great to truly see the people we have become and to honor those who can't, can continue to become.

May the friends we lost rest in peace, and may we remember them for a blessing.

Reality TV's Newest Star

When William Hung sang She Bangs on American Idol all those years ago, America changed.  We became comfortable with the notion that one doesn't have to have talent or be interesting to rise to the top of our American consciousness.  It led to the Kardashian world we now live in.  So the Trump Reality Show Administration now has its William Hung.  Sam Nunberg, a lawyer and lapdog for Roger Stone who worked on the prequel The Trump Campaign spent the day on almost every media outlet telling us he would not comply with a subpoena from the Mueller investigation. Sam Nunberg has been a crazy character for a long time. Fired in 2015 from Trump's campaign for posting racist posts on social media.  That would be par for the course in a Roger Stone universe but Trump hadn't achieved his level of comfort with white nationalism at the time.  But Nunberg kept in touch with Trump advisers, including Steve Bannon.  So yesterday Sam put on a tour-de-force performance across the cable news universe.  Speculation was that he was high or drunk..  On CNN reporter even said he had alcohol on his breath. But what is interesting is that he gained a celebrity status for sounding like a buffoon.  A lawyer, some even looked up where he went to school to challenge his apparent lack of competence in understanding how a simple court action works.  He ended the evening with a statement that he will likely comply with the subpoena.  One could say it was one bad apple, but we have seen a bushel of them.  Heck, the leader in the clubhouse for Kata Kaelin award was Carter Paige, the spy who couldn't shoot straight.  But his media tour was subdued to compared to Nunberg.  

This is an example of a the people the President has chosen to be around him.  This guy's mentor, Roger Stone, was one of the craziest operatives in right wing politics who has written books saying that the Bush family are a mafia and the LBJ killed Kennedy.  He lives in the Alex Jones land of conspiracies and frankly seems to have fetishized Richard Nixon. Stone is accused of  being a connection between the Trump campaign and Russian hackers. Protecting Stone is the hill Sam Nunberg wants to die on, while calling the President an idiot and saying that the Mueller team has something on the President.  So this is where we are, the reality show that is this Administration continues.  By the way, the President's proposed tariffs will destroy the world economy, the HUD Secretary Ben Carson who recently got caught trying to spend $31 thousand on a dining set says his job is hard, North Korea is calling for talks with the US after creating a dialogue with South Korea and it looks like a former Russian spy in the United Kingdom has been attacked with poison, a typical Russian style attack.  I just hope that there is only one run for this show.  

The Comment Section is A Place to Feel Smart

A while back, Indiana joined most of the country and started using Daylight Savings Time.  It was difficult for life-long Hoosier and I understood their frustration.  For me it was a bit of a relief as I hated the great world I interacted with never knowing what time it was for me.  Conference calls were like a Abbot and Costello skit and when I flew to the east coast during the change it became a whole other thing.  It has been 12 years, almost a generation has grown up with it, but I still hear complaints.  Now I don't like DST but for some it is just that they don't think Indiana should do it.  Wait until they hear there is a move to put us on Central time.

Well, Indiana joined a majority of the country again this week by enacting Sunday alcohol sales in package (liquor) stores and retailers in general with licenses like grocery stores and big box stores. This is the first of what will likely be many battles over alcohol policy in Indiana.  What is interesting is that this was the easiest to enact and while a major shift in policy is not going to have very much of an effect in most people's lives.  It will allow me to buy wine and liquor on my normal Sunday Costco runs so that is helpful to me.  This is to say the least more convenient for consumers and frankly more beneficial to grocery stores who were losing Sunday business to breweries and some restaurants who could sell packaged beer on Sundays already.   But some are upset.

So bring on the comment section.  One person wrote " Well Gov. You should be proud! The ONE day you could get out and drive without having to worry about DRUNKS and YOU RUINED IT! GLAD I DIDN'T VOTE FOR YOU!" on a facebook post.  The caps are hers.  What is interesting is that buying alcohol in a store would make it less likely for someone to drive drunk.  Before the passing of the law if someone wanted to drink while watching say, a football game or a NASCAR race, and they didn't have any at home, they would go to a bar.  That might lead to 4 hours of drinking and watching.  Then drive home.  But now, they can run to a local retailer and go home and watch.  Simple and safer.  But don't tell the person on facebook who thinks people will be downing shots in Kroger I imagine. 

Others who seem to not think before they post said that no one needs to buy  alcohol on Sunday if they are too stupid to remember to get it a day earlier.  What if we looked at other things like that?  We would be outraged to find that things we want or need could be limited to purchase on certain days. No toilet paper Wednesday, no meat on Monday.  How does that make sense?   What is the point?  Should I have to stock up?  What does that even mean? 

Others have suggested that Sunday sales will create more alcoholics.  I wish I knew how that math worked.  It is an insult to people struggling with the disease and insults the intelligence of everyone who reads it.

None of these comments are consequential and frankly they will mean very little in the grand scheme of things but it is a trend that is disturbing.  The comment session was used by Russia to spread disinformation in our last election.  Today it has become a fertile ground for antisemitism, racism and white supremacy as well as continued attacks on individuals with lies or out-of-context quotes.  The latter comes from the right and the left.  Unlike social media, the comment section of publications can easily be monitored for facts and appropriate responses.  If only they would be.  So take everything with a grain of salt, and remember you have access to the best information analysis in your own brain, take the time to use it before you comment. 

Why CNN Got It Wrong

Wednesday night CNN had a townhall meeting, of sorts, with survivor victims of the Parkland, Fl school shooting and lawmakers and NRA representative Dana Loesch.  It was a microcosm of every debate on gun issues.  I will not go into that too deeply but many people operate on this issue from ignorance.  When that happens what we talk past each other, we hear what we want to hear and the rhetoric gets ugly. The students of  Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are trying to tell us something, through tears, angry, and pain.  CNN did them a disservice.  We can't as well. 

The gun debate is not new and has always been complicated.  Gun ownership helped build the country and almost destroyed it. Guns are truly American,  We live in a country with the right to own guns. The Supreme Court, in DC vs. Heller identified the right as an individual one when used for legal purposes including self-defense. This clarified the wording of  the role of  "well-regulated militia" in the second amendment saying one did not have to be part of one to have the right.  However, that same decision however said it is Constitutional to put restrictions on where and what kind of gun one can own.  Quoting the late Justice Anton Scalia writing for the majority:  “like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited." It is “not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.” For instance, Scalia said concealment laws were permitted at the time of the Constitution’s ratification and should be permitted today. 

So in the United States today the right of gun ownership can be mitigated by laws as long as owning a weapon for legal purposes is not eliminated.  That is simple. Calls for full bans on all weapons are not helpful and would require getting rid of the 2nd amendment, some in the crowd at CNN seemed to applaud. But here is the thing, the 2nd amendment was never about hunting, nor really personal protection from criminal elements.  No one in the 1780s would have thought to even consider those questionable.  What it was about was the states having the ability to fend off a tyrannical central Federal government who were overreaching.  The Civil War, in part, was predicted by the founders and because there has always been a tension of when are we 50 states and when are we one nation.  The 2nd was designed to help the states beat back an unlawful attack on Americans' freedom. Banning all guns is a failed idea and should not be entertained and it fails to add to the conversation.

But also what doesn't help is those that argue any restriction on access to fire arms is a total ban or worse that someone is coming to their homes and taking there guns.  To hear recent NRA messaging
you would think that there is a ready force in the government coming to take away all the guns and lock up people who believe in gun rights.  They say we hate freedom.  This is a failed conversation too and frankly insane. 

Then why not outlaw specific firearms to keep that people less armed?  The idea of banning assault weapons as they are called seems reasonable to many.  We can ignore the extremes and work on that.  But  the fact that defining an assault weapon has proven difficult because the gun manufacturers know that there is a market to exploit and so change a bit of the weapon to work around any law.  Besides, the reason is there is a market.  There are plenty of Americans who not only want a gun for personal protection or hunting, which most people feel is fine, but because it is actually fun to fire skeet shoot, fire at a range and feel the power of a gun.  That is why first-person shooter games are also popular.  And in this country we have that right.

So the solution to this are difficult and can not be done with the posturing of politicians, town halls driven by anger and certainly not the crazy rhetoric of the far right and a President who blurts out thoughtless nonsense without thinking through the implications of the idea. Guns are part of our culture and while I am all for helping with a cultural change, that can not be done by laws and will fail if tried. 

Let me be perfectly clear.  The NRA does not have the interest of Americans' right at heart, nor do they care about gun owners and safety.  They are lobbyists for the gun manufacturers. They have become the loudest voice for the biggest gun makers in this country.  They have for decades spoken with a radical agenda and attacked the FBI and other law enforcement (before it was done by mainstream Republicans).  In fact George H.W. Bush ended his relationship with the NRA over them calling the FBI Jack-booted thugs in the 90s.  They do not speak for a majority of the gun owners nor mainstream America.  But they are out front because they have power in Washington due to their deep deep pockets.  We watched their national spokesperson snarl at kids who were trying to get their point across on the CNN program.  She also lied about the NRA's position on various efforts to limit guns getting into the hands of the wrong people. And then the next day she claimed she claimed the mainstream media loves school shootings to because it is good for ratings.  That is some high level chutzpah for someone who has used gun issues to make her career. 

Guns are an emotional issue and when there is too much emotion there is room for ignorance to fill in the gaps.  There are facts that need to be used when making decisions on guns and school and general community safety.  There is a debate here, it isn't easy.  So let's be clear about moving forward, the debate has to be from a position of knowledge and history.

So let's keep in mind:
1.  The President doesn't think things through, his ideas are nonsense and should simply be ignored.  Let's stop debating what he says.  The man will not follow through and will change his mind if the right person gets in his ear.   

2.  The NRA speaks not for gun rights but gun makers.  They are not part of the solution.

3.  If your argument is that the 2nd amendment was written when muskets were state of the art that is not relevant to the discussion.   It is like suggesting the 1st doesn't relate to the internet.  It is a non-starter.  Yes guns are more deadly but we can both keep the 2nd intact and restrict guns in many ways.  Let's work on that.

4.  It is dangerous to argue to ban all private gun ownership.  Not only will that not be good giving the government too much power over the people, but it will also end any good conversations.

5.  If you question is "why do you need a gun like that?" you aren't asking the right question.

The real question is where can be build roadblocks to keep guns out of the hands of people who want to do harm or don't have the capacity to fully understand what they are doing:

1.  Comprehensive and fully funded background check system that includes people being treated for severe mental illness.  I know there is a privacy concern here but we give up privacy all the time for purchases.  This can be worked out over time.

2.  Waiting periods for weapons like AR-15s.  I am not a gun maven, but a semi-automatic weapon or any based on a military weapon designed to be used offensively should require a waiting period. 

3.  Training for weapons.  The purchase of a weapon should require a training course of some kind.  I don't think that is unreasonable.  A weapon can create damage in the public sphere I think we have a responsibility to make sure the owner at least knows where the the rounds will go.

4.  Severe penalties if your weapon is used in the commission of a crime.  Meaning you have to be responsible for it.  If stolen report immediately. 

5.  Add-ons to guns that make them shoot like automatic weapons (bump stocks etc.) should be banned and buy back programs should be put in place.  If caught with one after two years of the ban in place there should be prison time. 

Those are all ways we can slow down the violence that we have been visited by but it won't stop it. 
What Parkland taught us was that we have a blind spot when it comes to certain people and weapons.  Laws could have stopped the killer in Florida, if he had to be 21 to buy an AR-15 he wouldn't have it, if there was a way to take away his guns when he threatened a school shooting that could have helped, if the state and federal authorities had taken him seriously they could have intervened.  But that didn't happen because I truly believe we don't see the very people who are threats as threats. So often we hear reports of problems that people saw and in this case reported.  Yet nothing was done.  We have to take this all seriously.  I wonder, if after recent San Bernadino and the Pulse nightclub how the FBI, local law enforcement and the family he lived with would have reacted if his name was Ahmed.

I want laws to make it harder for some people to get access to any weapons, I want to outlaw devises that convert semi-automatic weapons, and there are probably some weapons that don't belong in the hands of private citizens.  I want to live in a country where the freedoms that made us great are mitigated by the thoughtfulness that makes us continue to be so.  I want the nonsense to stop, the shouting, the posturing and the downright disgusting nature of the rhetoric to stop.  We are sick as a culture not because we have guns but because we refuse to speak openly and honestly about them.  Because we are polarized and too many so-called leaders cannot be trusted.  The children are screaming at us because that is all they think we can hear.  Let's prove them wrong and listen, because under the tears, the anger and pain they do have a still small voice that is powerful.  It is time to focus and just freaking listen.  

We Continue to Live in a Post-Truth World.

So the move Black Panther opened on Friday.  A superhero movie centered on an African prince who is to lead a hidden kingdom on the African continent.  I haven't seen the movie and cannot comment on the content, but I have seen that it has been a movie that has inspired a sense of pride among African Americans in the media.  So of course there is a segment of our culture who feels this is a problem. To respond to this there has been a deluge of fake Twitter posts showing pictures of white people with physical injuries saying they were jumped as showings of the film.  This was completely untrue and easy to prove wrong.  Twitter has had to ban users who have been doing this.  But the story isn't going away and that is the problem. Once it is out there people will believe it and won't do the research.  It demonizes the black community suggesting that white people shouldn't go see this film.  It also will push down the box office numbers in some communities, though it still was a record weekend.  But facts don't matter anymore do they?

CNN has gone out of their way to get the mythical both sides of any information they report on in what has become in the last 30 years or so news analysis.  Virtually every day there is someone on their air that lies to the hosts.  Sometimes called out but mostly there is a nuanced push back that doesn't seem to want to offend.  Just a few minutes ago I switched over to CNN to hear about a rumor that Rick Gates, Paul Manafort's second and the head of the Trump inauguration team, has plead guilty.  Two people were arguing about gun laws in the wake of the Florida shooting.  Once again false talking points were unchallenged on the air.  But that has been going on since last Wednesday with this story.  For example, the call for armed guards in schools.  The school in Florida has an armed guard.  The shooting went to fast to have him engage.  Shooting stories bring out the lies consistently.  Most of the people who have opinions about guns do it from an emotional place.  (except members of Congress who are on the NRA payroll).  So even news stories are riddled with false statements.  I get that a little but I wish the news media would do a deep story about the facts of these events.  After the shock and awe, after the crazy number of reporters are sent to stick microphones in the face of grieving families, after the political class stops using victims as political football, I would like to see a documentary done on what is true and not true about these shootings.

There are journalists who are doing deep work on the Russian involvement of our elections. NBC's:  Left Field: After Truth which looks at a known Russian troll farm Facebook ad to organize anti-refugee rally in Twin Falls Idaho.  This has created a growing anti-refugee feeling and people are being attacked in the town.  In fact it is one of the ground zeroes for fake news.  Like the Bowling Green massacre lie from the White House, it has ginned up people to repeat nonsense about Muslims in our country.  What is amazing is the number of people who, despite the facts, continue to believe things that a proven to not be true.  But the more we push back with facts more people with have to believe.  Facts are important and the fact that we have documentary shows called After Truth and a White House that believes in alternative facts it will not be easy.

But there are those who don't want facts to interfere with their world view.  When Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor was nominated for the court an old speech in which she suggested a "a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."  Speaking about how certain perspectives will color a judges decision.  As they always have.  It was a speech about Latina jurists.  In context the statement made the point that a diversity of perspectives give the court a better understanding of issues that may involve people of color or women.  When discussing it on Fox News one commentator when asked about the context said something to the effect that context isn't important.  Context helps define truth.  But to this right wing noise maker truth was unimportant. 

Now is par of the course for pundits but should it be for members of Congress they should be held to a higher standard, by themselves as well as us. However my hope that this could be true is just not realized.   Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), a conservative upstate Republican, went on CNN “Newsroom” on Saturday, attempting to defend President Donald Trump in light of the recent indictments of Russians for their illegal meddling in the 2016 election.  While she twice, at least, said that the indictment put an end to the idea of collusion of the Trump campaign with Russian troll farms (it doesn't) she had to be asked if she thought the 37 page indictment seems to be a conclusion of the efforts of the special council.  Tenney had to admit that she hadn't read the indictment released on Friday.  Seriously, the indictment was online before I got home on Friday.  She is back in her district and not in session, she was going on national television to speak about this and she didn't read it.  Not because she didn't have time it is because she didn't care about the facts.  When pushed a little about the role of Russians in the election she said they helped both sides.  (They didn't and the indictment is clear about that).  How is it that a member of Congress can get away with that.

The answer is simple.  We are living in a Post-truth world.  Facts don't matter.  If it violates our worldview it can't be true.  Be it about what is happening at movie theaters, restrictions on guns, Russian involvement in our election or virtually anything these days there is no trusted referee to help us.  Where have you gone Walter Cronkite, a nation turns its confused eyes to you?  Who is your heir and will we believe her?

Jamie Morton is Up For Parole Again

So the letter came today.  Every two years it comes at the end of January or beginning of February.  It tells me that Linda's murderer will once again have a chance to be freed from prison.  It once again asks me to draft a statement for the board.  It once again brings up the debate between wanting that man to die in prison and my values of living in a culture where rehabilitation and second chances are important.  It seems that in the long run I know nothing changes the past, I like my present, and when I look back over the 30 years since Linda's murder I have struggled, hurt people, and acted the fool in part from carrying the anger and pain of that afternoon in the summer of '87,  However with each year I have healed.  Maybe I can even drive down James Street in Syracuse next time I am there.  But I still am uncertain about the fact that Jamie Morton be freed.  So here is what I plan to send the parole board.  Not that different from previous letters but maybe with a little more edge.  Call me out if you feel you need to, frankly I am not sure if I am totally comfortable with my own thoughts:

Dear Parole Board,

I am writing this letter as a victim impact statement to be considered at the upcoming parole hearing of Jamie Morton, Inmate number 88C0405. On August 31, 1987 he murdered Linda Akers, my fiancé, in my apartment in Syracuse.  It seems that I have done this every 2 years for a while now so I wonder if this is really a necessary action, however I feel I give voice to Linda and that is important for me. 

Mr. Morton violently beat and stabbed Linda for no reason except to vent his anger at a world he felt was unfair.  But more than stealing Linda and my future, he took a light out of the world.  Linda’s work with young children, especially during her time at the Bishop Foery Foundation, was focused on reaching vulnerable and at-risk children.   She wanted to make a difference in the world, especially for those who were often unseen or ignored by society as a whole.  She never got the chance to make her mark. 

I have never felt that someone who could so senselessly take a life should be released and enjoy the freedom he stole from Linda and for many years myself.  Now, more than 30 years after her death, I think I have found a way to heal almost fully.  However, when I am brought back to that time period either by a visit with my college friends or a trip through Central New York, I once again feel the wound as if it were fresh. How can someone who caused such ripples of pain be able to fully make up for it even in 3 decades?   

Yet I am also someone who believes in both justice and rehabilitation.  If Mr. Morton has served his time honorably and without incidents of violence or dangerous behavior, and if he will add to the world’s good as opposed to evil, should he not be released?  Each time I have received your letter I find myself in debate with myself about what I would like to see (Morton die in prison) from an emotional level and the values I fought for and that Linda shared that justice and rehabilitation should be part of our society.  Giving people a second chance is important to me.  I just can’t help but think of his behavior at trial, his lack of real remorse and of course the simple fact that his reaction to being angry was to kill the innocent person nearest him.    

You have more information than I do.  You know his record in prison.  You know if he has found a way to purge the anger that fed him.  You may even know if he still has murder in his heart.  But if you can’t be sure that the man you sent to prison is not coming out with all the same problems then how can you feel comfortable allowing him back into society? 

I know that you are supposed to take a “future focused” approach to deciding parole. But I don’t think you should forget the crime itself and not just the action of plunging a knife into another human, but what ending Linda’s life meant to the world.   I hope you see that Mr. Morton took the life of a woman who was dedicating that life to young children, many vulnerable at-risk children in your community.  I hope that you will see the crime was against a single person but has caused a great deal more pain for many, many others.

So in the end, once again, you have to decide whether Morton should be free, living the community where Linda was no longer allowed to bring her light.  Your job is difficult, I know I don’t have a vote, but again, if you don’t feel 100% confident he will add to the community don’t set him free, I wouldn’t. 

Thank you for taking my words into consideration while you deliberate. 

Sincerely,

George Kelley 

Racists are Getting Cover from the Top

In Carmel, Indiana, a northern suburb, a Muslim group has petitioned the zoning board to build an Islamic Center that will include a mosque.  The center will be in a residential neighborhood that has been seeing development north and south of it.  The people who live there do have some legitimate questions about what this new house of worship will mean to the neighborhood.  Traffic and noise being the biggest issues.  Also what it might mean if the center does drug treatment programs or a food pantry.  Neighbors need to consider these things and the zoning board should as well.  Houses of worship in general can be a net positive to a neighborhood.   But for some any effort to create a commercial-like environment can be problematic.  A large building with a public profile does change a lot about an area.

The mosque has tried to address some of the issues, for example, fear of a public call to prayer has been been spoken to by the fact that there will not be one to conform with local noise ordinances.  So know that local government will have to balance the needs, rights, and concerns of the groups.

But the debate has brought out an ugly side of our culture.  The responses to the story on local newscast social media pages has been down right racist.  One person, who doesn't live in the city let alone the neighborhood, said that there is a mosque in Plainfield so why do they need another one.  It is almost one-hour from the area that this community lives in.  Others equated Islam with terror and suggested, without sarcasm, that this is the first step to Sharia being imposed in Carmel.  It is mindnumbing.  But this is where we are as a country.  It isn't new, loud-mouthed hate has been part of culture since the dawn of culture.  I have always found it interesting that in ancient Rome there was political graffiti that attacked leaders and others personally.  But today it feels different.  It feels like elected officials are helping to cultivate this hate. 

High level leaders in the Republican party, including the President, have reached out to the most divisive and hateful members of the right wing noise machine.  People like Alex Jones, a man who called the Sandy Hook massacre a false flag operation, has access to top government officials and the President has been on his conspiracy ridden radio program.  White supremacists have been invited into the White House and we have seen members of that subculture flashing White Power signs while standing in the People's house.  And of course, the President, when faced with questions about the racist gathering in Charlottesville called some of the them fine people. 

Anonymity of the internet, cover run by our leaders and the daily deluge of slug from members of the inner circle in the current administration has created a fertile ground for hate to be acceptable to many.  It takes good people to not do nothing.  There are many times arguments can be made against whate I believe, from a mosque in Carmel, to DACA to a border wall to security measures.  But if those arguments use bigoted, ignorant or racist ideas to prop up a failed position, we must challenge them.  There are more of us than them.  And some can still be shamed, regardless if the GOP leadership has lost that ability.       

Facts are Always Facts.

When access to the internet became ubiquitous, I was teaching a class at Georgia College.  I remember telling my students that if they used a website as a reference for their writing they must show the websites' citations as well.  Twenty some years ago the internet was not fully understood by many, even in academia, and of course there was tons of misinformation on the World Wide Web.  I used part of a class session to show this by finding websites that promoted wild conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassination, Flat Earth groups and of course my favorite alien visitation.  Most students became better consumers of the vast information now available to them.  More than two decades later the information has only expanded but so has the misinformation and confusion.  That coupled with partisan news organizations and position driven websites we now have access to a tsunami of information from a devise we carry in our pockets, but that wave brings flotsam and jetsam that is is hard to weed out.  

While long before the internet was the main way we interact with information, hucksterism, misinformation and yellow journalism were around.  The internet has just not only made it more private but has linked like minded people to create a perpetual reinforcement machine that leads people to believe things and justify them by the sheer numbers of people they can connect with who agree.  Fertile ground for those wishing to take advantage of ignorance.  

Sometimes this is just a way to separate a willing mark from his or hers money.  Phil Plait, known as the Bad Astronomer, post an Instagram photo today of a booth selling magnetic jewelry that apparently does something non-specific for health.  Snake oil on a grand scale.  Every Facebook feed has something for sale that will make you a better human being, hopefully.  In many cases this is just folly.  While this is usually only dangerous to those who fall for the pitch, it is highly disturbing that it is so easy to fool people.  But recently we have seen an uptick in more authoritarian sources selling nonsense.  

While many news organizations have a editorial bent there have always been some sources of information that eschewed facts for information to promote a position.  Until very recently Fox News led the charge but usually only in their infotainment shows (early morning and the prime time schedule).  But since Donald Trump began running for President, other sources that have no connection to reality are getting access to the inner circles of government.  A good example is InfoWars which claims all kinds of crazy things including that no children died at Sandy Hook.  The current President has been on the show of Alex Jones.  Also he has elevated people who promoted the insane notion that a pizza place in Washington DC was the center of a pedophile ring led by Hillary Clinton.  This led to a man shooting the place up.  

This world of Alternative Facts, as stated by a White House representative when asked to justify clear lies from the White House podium leads to all kinds of things.  There is a controversy in Carmel, IN over the building of a mosque in what is a residential area of town.  Now for those not from the Indianapolis area, Carmel and some of the surrounding suburbs are on a building kick again.  A field across the road from my neighborhood  is populated with McMansions and a new CVS at the corner (about 3 miles from another new CVS basically at the other end of my neighborhood).  I understand the idea of not wanting a new Islamic center which will become a community center for the Muslim community, one that is active in the interfaith world.  But there are many who don't want the mosque because of the stereotypes of Muslims.  One claiming the Dearborn, MI is a city run by Sharia law.  He read it on the internet.  People running for Congress and speaking for the President have suggested that Sharia law is taking over areas of the country.  This is nonsense but you can quote websites who say this without proof.  

Facts exist and they are facts regardless of whether people believe them. Too often when a statement is challenged people say "prove me wrong".  That is not how this works.   We need to be a culture that is educated enough to understand when we are being lied to, and know how to seek out reality.  The internet is made to people passing along bad information.  Don't like the internet think for you.  Think for yourself, find out where you get your facts and if something fits too nicely into a particular narrative, try to debunk it before you pass it along.  We will all be better for it.