Another Delco Guy In South Jersey

Wordless Wednesday

9/11 - 11 Years Later and Still at War

It's 11 years since cowards took advantage of the open, free society that we enjoy and flew airplanes filled of innocent people into buildings filled with still more innocents. Nearly 3,000 people died. America had been attacked on her home soil and we reacted like the proud, wounded nation we are.

For all of my daughter Emma's life and 90% of my son John's life, America has been at war. But it's not a war that has really affected them in any way. Or me either. Or most folks.

It's a real war.  Ask those who are fighting it.  They are sacrificing , giving lives and limbs.  Months and year of their lives.  Losing jobs and houses, coming home bankrupt with PTSD and an indifferent public.

But there's no rationing.

No shortages.

No real significant protests.

No body counts on TV each night.

Would we have tolerated 11 years of war if we had personal sacrifices required of us?

If our tv shows and sports events had been disrupted?

If we had not been able to get strawberries in February?

If gas or chocolate or razor blades were only available on alternate weeks?

Or how about, if, god forbid, middle class, white people from northern states would be compelled to serve?

Not a chance.

There is no way 'The War on Terror' would still be going on if you and I had been forced to make the same sacrifices of the men and women serving today.  Or those of the generations who have been conscripted to protect this nation from evil (immediate or potential) in previous generations. Or even if the sacrifices expected of those on the home front in World War II were expected of us today.

There would have been massive protests, perhaps riots. Politicians would have been run out of office and pay and benefits for the military would have been seriously adjusted.

As sad as it is to note on this day of memorial, in some ways, I fear the terrorists have won this war.  Yes, we got Bin Laden and toppled Saddam Hussein. Yes, we drove the Taliban from power (sort of). No, there have not been any other Al-Quaeda  attacks on our home soil. These things all point to victory.

But the cost has been massive. 6,280 American have given their lives since 9/11 in service of our cause.  We have spent around $4 trillion to accomplish our war goals. At home, our freedoms and liberties have been curtailed or eliminated, infrastructure funds diverted to hardening targets and strengthening the homeland. 

While we may not feel the effects of a decade of war every day, they are there. 

Our 11 years of war have had their toll. And it's one not often thought of by most of us and that seems completely lost in today's presidential campaign. Today I remember all those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, as well all the heroes who risked and gave so much to save lives that day.

But I also remember all the warriors who have fought on my proxy, going where I can - and would - not.  And their families, silently suffering so that Emma and John don't. 

So many heroes to whom we give so little.

Thank you and I am sorry I have not made your struggle part of my every day.

On Government and Health Care

If you are a Supreme Court junkie, as I am, it's been a pretty interesting week.  three days of oral arguments before the court over The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has had NPR's Nina Totenberg breathless since Monday.  I followed closely the radio and print accounts of the arguments and all of the analysis that came afterwards.

There were three basic areas of dispute.  The first, seemingly dismissed by the Court, is that the an obscure federal tax law from 1867 called the Anti-Injunction Act (AIA) essentially bars bringing a case against Obamacare.  The law prohibits tax protesters from filing suit against a tax until the tax has actually been paid.  The Supremes seems dubious that there was even a tax involved here, even given that when the act is in force those who do not have health insurance will have to pay a penalty, which the IRS will collect.  It's a fine point I guess, but that's why lawyers are involved.

The second day was really where the fireworks were, with Obamacare opponents making the argument that the law is unconstitutional because it forces everyone in America to purchase health insurance.  Their essential argument was that the constitution does not permit the government to compel a citizen to purchase anything and that if the government could do this, it could compel people to buy anything at all, including broccoli.

The government's counter to this argument was that broccoli, no matter how much you like it, does not provide for a basic human need like access to health care does and that the government certainly has the right to regulate trade in such a huge area of the economy.  The government also argued that the only wa for health insurance to work was to have everyone in it all the time or else only sick people would buy it, making the whole system a horrendously expensive mess.

The final day's arguments were based around the complaint to the states governed by Republicans that the regulations that the act placed on Medicare were an unconstitutional violation of states rights by the federal government. The states also made the argument that the entire act must be struck down if any portion of it were deemed unconstitutional.

In the end, despite favoring universal care on a human rights basis, I found the arguments presented against Obamacare to be compelling.  I specifically agreed with the idea that individuals can't be told to buy a product, no matter how useful the product is or how much the product is needed to provide for the common good.  While we all agree that everyone should have access to comprehensive, affordable healthcare, we can't provide it by requiring everyone to buy personal coverage.  It's not who we are as a nation.  We don't solve our problems by mandating behavior.

So a government-funded, single-payer insurance system like Canada's must be the answer, right? 

I will surprise my libertarian and conservative friends (and my liberal friends too, I guess) by saying no, I think that government control of the healthcare system is not the answer either.  I work in higher education, where I have seen first-hand how the government can take over programs that have some problems but are working and regulate them into a costly, inefficient mess in a matter of years. Government can't even figure out how to collect trash efficiently and we want to entrust 1/6 of the economy and our health to its organizational ability?  I think not.

The real answer is that the solution is a lot harder than a health care bill. It will added efficiency such as a realization that not every hospital needs every new device. It will take philanthropy.  One of the reasons that health care has gotten so much more expensive is that non-profits and religious groups have been driven out as healthcare mega corps have been able to outbid them for top docs, leaving only charity care for the NPOs to provide. 

America has to invest in itself to get though what I consider a health care crisis.  That means those who have resources making a concerted effort to voluntarily provide for the less fortunate though philanthropy.  It's not good enough to buy proton guns for major research hospitals.  Someone has to be willing to subsidize mammograms and and infant care for folks who can't afford it on their own.

It also has to start with individual responsibility. One of the reasons that health care is so expensive is that we are so out of shape. Obesity, heart disease and diabetes are epidemics in the country, starting with toddlers. You don't have to join an expensive gym or hire a personal trainer, but it's time to get off our butts and go for a walk, to volunteer to clean up a park, or to coach a youth team.  We're lucky enough to live in a country with abundant access to clean, fresh water.  We should be drinking more of that and a lot less soda and juice.

I know I sound a lot like a small government conservative here, but I think that a regulated private healthcare system with significant philanthropic care is the best way to solve this problem. People also have to realize that their choices affect the community at large.  The Supreme Court is going to gut Obamacare when the justices rule in June. But that's not a bad thing.  It was a bad compromise on a grand idea.  Now it's time to more forward with a better plan.

Occupy Philly

It's a beautiful day for a walk, so I took some time earlier today to head up Broad Street to Dilworth Plaza, next to City Hall to see the Occupy Philly rally/demonstration/gathering.  Honestly, if not for the police on every corner and the middle of Broad Street, you might not know anything was going on.

From 200 feet away, there was no sign of the latest outgrowth of the Occupy Wall Street movement.  On my way into work today, there were helicopters in the air and news trucks everywhere.  By noon though the 200 or so Occupiers were mostly surrounded by cops, confused homeless people, citizens documenting the situation,  and folks like me, just enjoying the day.

Clearly the Occupiers had thought things were going to be bigger, staging a Medic area, a family zone, sign painting stations and food distribution areas.  None of that appears to be really necessary.  There were plenty of signs and food. 

What there wasn't was a coherent message.  Forgiving student loans was a common these, corporate greed another.  But mostly the crowd seemed to be trying to convince itself that the gathering meant something.  I just didn't feel it.  To me, the folks there looked like an odd blending  of the kind of folks you see on the steps at UArts every day and some seriously aging hippies.  There were also several kids who can't play guitar.  Maybe they read somewhere that you need to have guitars at protest rallies.

I have to say that i see this movement as a left wing version of the Tea Party.  Nothing too organized, very diffuse ideaology, no center theme.  Except that they are angry with the way things are and they want change.  Both groups are dissatisfied with the way the nation we live in is being run.  Neither seems to have a clue as to what to do about it though.

The Tea Party movement was co-opted by the far right of the Republican Party, and this Occupy movement seems to have been co-opted by labor unions.  It will be interesting to see if the unions have as much success focusing the anger of the Occupiers.  It will also be interesting to see how many show up tomorrow.

Happy Birthday America!

Old Glory at CBP
Originally uploaded by Cavalier92

Today is the most American of our holidays. Each July 4th, we spend the day celebrating our nation by eating, drinking, watching baseball, playing in the pool and buying things. We cap the day off by watching things blow up. Here in the Philadelphia region, hundreds of thousands will gather on a plot of ground named for one of the greatest patriots in our history, Ben Franklin, and listen to music and watch fireworks.

Reflection is not a particularly American process. We fancy ourselves as "do-ers," the kind of folks who get things done, not the kind who sit around thinking about the past. This, in a sentence, explains a great deal about our foreign policy.

Today is a day that deserves some reflection. It was on this date. after a stifling late spring and early summer of political dealing in Philadelphia, that a group of white men announced that they had decided that the former American colonies of Great Britain were now a separate nation. In that most famous of American sentences, Thomas Jefferson wrote that:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The document they published on this day in 1776 borrowed heavily from the work of French and English and French philosophers, but the process that took to creating a nation was American at its heart. Deals were cut in smoky back rooms and taverns. Those who disagreed were tossed out and arrested. What we celebrate today as a great time of national unity was in fact really a tipping point, a moment in time where the inertia of loyalism was overcome by the fervor of revolution and a new nation struggled into being. Thousands celebrated in the streets, but still others packed their things and shuttered their businesses, heading 'home' to England.

Noting the split that was in the air is important I think. Though all of the internal strife, we came together as a people and as a nation. Certainly it helped that there was tyranny to fight. A great enemy makes it easy to unite. It would take years to allow this nation to stand on its own, and even then, there would be problems. It would take nearly a century to begin to address the omissions of the founders.

Another war would be needed to give black Americans the beginnings of freedom in America. After fifty more years of complex social struggle, women would be recognized as more than property. 234 years after "all men" were declared "equal" we are still struggling with recognizing the right of any person to love and marry another.

America is imperfect. But she is the greatest imperfect nation ever created. And while we still struggle to rise to the high ideals the drafters of the Declaration of Independence set forth for us, there is an immense amount here that I am very proud to be a part of. The Declaration is an aspirational document, one that each of us has a responsibility to seek to work to each day.

Go forth ans enjoy the great beauty of this country today, gather freely and express your freedom as you see fit. And remember the struggles it took to ensure those rights for you. And especially those who do not yet enjoy them.

Happy 234th birthday America!

Photography Rights Under Fire on Amtrak and Elsewhere

While this hilarious Stephen Colbert report makes light of the situation that Duane P. Kerzic found himself in on December 21, 2008, I don't think it's a laughing matter. 

The facts of the case are:

• Kerzic bought a ticket and traveled to New York's Penn Station
• He was there to take photographs
• He intended to enter the photographs in Amtrak's annual photography contest
• He walked around the platform between Tracks 9 and 10, taking some cool photos
• He was handcuffed and detained for an hour by Amtrak security
• He was issued a citation for trespassing
• He wrote letters and emails to everyone under the sun

Now obviously I don't know how Kerzic behaved in the period leading up and after his arrest.  One might intuit from his website that he is a bit umm ... uhh ... how to put his ... obsessive.  But clearly he's got a point that he was in a public area of the station and Amtrak policy allows photos in public areas.

While this may seem to be an isolated case, Amtrak has a history of incidents like this.  There are a number of internet discussions, associations and even T-shirts that are evaluating the ramifications of the 'war on terror' on the rights of photographers to take pictures of public buildings, transportation systems and other 'sensitive' facilities.

I've actually been 'challenged' by a federal officer while taking photos in Washington, DC of the Federal Reserve complex.  While I was not asked to do more than provide my identification and wait while the tactically-armored officer ran my name through the terrorist watch list or something, it was still a sobering experience.

I don't doubt that there are people in the US who are here to do us harm.  What I do doubt is the value of diluting the freedoms that America says it represents in order to protect us from what ever potential harm is out here.  The actions of government in the post 9-11 period have eroded the basic freedoms of Americans.  From photography to protection against wiretaps and internet snooping, we live in a period where we can taking no activity for granted.  Former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis states my point better than I ever could - 'The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.'

I have few hopes for the new Obama administration.  There's too much to do and too many people willing to let the mess fester for their own benefit.  One thing I am expecting from Obama and Holder and the rest is an end to the Cheneyist reduction of personal freedoms and a return to a government that honors all of the Bill of Rights, not just the second amendment.