Carlito's Way

In 1993 I was involved in an altercation in a Marysville, CA, movie theater.  Linda and I had gone to see “Carlito’s Way,” a reasonably good movie starring Al Pacino and Sean Penn, directed by Brian DePalma.  

There was this guy in the back row, probably drunk, who was talking during the entire movie.  I went out and told the manager about him, and the manager did speak to him, but as soon as the manager left, he started up again.  

I then went back and told the guy, who was with two girls, that my wife and I couldn’t enjoy the movie while he was talking.  He said, “Ok, man,” but as soon as I got back to my seat, he started up again.

When the movie was almost over, just before the credits, he came stomping down the steps.  I stood up and said, so the whole theater could hear, “Wait a minute.  You’ve been loud and rude through this entire movie, and you ought to learn some manners.”

I was wearing a watch cap at the time, and the guy said, “How’d you like me to knock your beanie off.”  

Linda was sitting with her hands in front of her face, and I was thinking, “I’m about to get the crap beat out of me,” when a very large man in a baseball cap stood up and said, “How’d you like to knock my beanie off?  I’m thinking, “Thank you, thank you,” because  by that time other patrons who had been annoyed were coming forward.

Linda and I slipped out by a side exit, and as we were heading for the car, we heard police sirens coming.  I don’t know what happened (I always try to leave before violence breaks out), but I do know that no one was killed.

That’s the difference between Marysville, CA, in 1993 and Wesley Chapel, FL, in 2014.  I probably would have said something to a guy texting, and he probably would have said something back, and somebody may have even gotten punched.  Nobody, however, would have gotten killed.

You know what makes me tired.  The N.R.A. saying “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”  I have two words for that.  Bull Shit.

Aliens and Climate Change

Americans who believe that aliens have visited earth:  77%

Americans who believe that humans are causing climate change:  44%.

Like almost everything in the U.S., climate change has become politicized.  66% of Democrats say human activity is the main cause of climate change, 24% of Republicans think that.

This is why I drink.

The statistics are from a column by Nicholas Kristof entitled:  “‘Neglected Topic’ Winner:  Climate Change” in the Jan. 19 issue of the New York Times.

Patti Borger makes it official

Today in front of the Carbon County Courthouse Annex in Jim Thorpe, Patti Borger told a crowd of supporters and a Channel 13 reporter that she was running for the 122nd District of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.  She noted that Carbon County is not well served by the incumbent, who takes his cues from Governor Corbett rather than the citizens of the County.  

Ms. Borger mentioned her ties to business and agriculture, her roots in the county, her commitment to education, her concerns about seniors losing their homes to property tax, her support for a clean environment, and her commitment to listen to the voters.  What a contrast to the incumbent.  His main concern is to get his picture in the Times News as often as possible.  

Candidates often say, “This will be a tough race, but we can win it.”  This will be a tough race.  Ms. Borger will need volunteers, funding, and motivated voters.  Her natural ability to relate to people and her commitment to work hard will put her over the top, but she will need help.  I’ll do what I can.

It's not the teachers, it's the parents

Here’s an excerpt from a speech that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently delivered:  “In 2009 President Obama met with President Lee of South Korea and asked him about his biggest challenge in education.  President Lee answered without hesitation:  parents in South Korea were ‘too demanding.’  Even his poorest parents demanded a world-class education for their children, and he was having to spend millions of dollars each year to teach English to students in the first grade, because his parents won’t let him wait until second grade.”  

I read this in a column by Thomas Friedman in today’s Times.  Friedman also quotes a number of teachers who discuss how difficult it is to teach in a climate where parents become angry if their children receive low grades.  One teacher quoted a student who said, “I know you’re a really good teacher, but you don’t seem to realize I have two hours a night of Facebook and over 4000 text messages a month to deal with.  How do you expect me to do all this work.”

We live in a society in which parents attend every sports event, video camera in hand.  They ask their school boards for bigger and better stadiums, and demand winning teams.  However, when it comes to academic work, they demand less, not more.  And our students fall behind, ill-equipped to deal with the modern world.  How did we get this stupid?

What Robert Reich missed

“Inequality for All” was a great documentary--entertaining, educational, and inspiring, and that’s a hard combination to achieve.  I do have one problem with the film, however, and it’s a biggie.

Reich said 70% of the American economy depends on consumer spending.  If the workforce is underpaid, less money is available for purchasing, layoffs and stagnation occur, and we enter a downward cycle.  Much of the movie was about how to raise the income of the people on the bottom by increasing their wages (stronger unions) or their productivity (better education).

One way to address inequality is to take from the rich and give to the poor, but redistributive policies are always difficult, especially when the Supreme Court in its “Citizens United” decision has given the top 1% a powerful ability to influence politics.  On the other hand, a healthy growing economy can benefit those of us on the bottom.

And here’s my problem.  Our current level of consumption is already killing the planet.  Not only that, but the rest of the world, all 7 billion of them, want to consume at our level, which will make matters far worse.  If the world’s economy and population keep growing, the next century will make the last one seem like a Sunday School picnic.  

How could we achieve some kind of income equality in a steady state economy?  A number of Green Party economists have wrestled with that problem, but so far they haven’t come up with any answers.  Unfortunately, most economists still take the short view--how can we make the economy grow this year.  

John Maynard Keynes was once asked,”What about the long run?”  He glibly replied, “In the long run we’re all dead.”  I once thought that was so clever.  I don’t anymore.  I think about our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren.

Harper's

Each month Harper’s Magazine runs a column entitled “Harper’s Index.”  The columns are always interesting and sometimes amazing.  Here are a few examples from the Feb. issue.

Portion of Democratic women who think it would be a good thing if more women were elected to Congress:  7/10.

Portion of Republican women who do:  1/4.

Number of days former Texas District Attorney Ken Anderson spent in jail for withholding evidence in a 1987 murder trial:  4.

Number of days spent in prison by the innocent man Anderson helped to convict:  8995.

See what I mean by amazing.

"Inequality for All"

About 60 people attended Carbon County’s premier showing of Robert Reich’s film “Inequality for All” at the Mahoning Cinema.  The film looks at economic trends in the U.S. since the 1920s in an entertaining (and rather disturbing) mixture of graphics, interviews, and classroom lectures.

The audience learned that 70% of the American economy depends on consumer spending.  If the middle class shrinks, people will not be able to purchase consumer goods, and the economy will contract further.  We learned that wages have been stagnant for years, while the top 1% takes a greater and greater share of the wealth.  We also learned that that top 1% spends very little on consumer goods.  We learned that the decline of unions has corresponded with the decline of the middle class.  And Reich presented graphic evidence of how the entire democratic system is being perverted by the campaign contributions of wealthy individuals.

One of the depressing items in the film was the data on income inequality and upward mobility.  The United States is near the bottom of countries with income inequality, although if I remember correctly, we are ahead of Uganda.  As for upward mobility, almost every industrialized country does better than we do. We still have the belief that anyone can move up, but it really is a myth.

By the way, the movie has a local connection.  One of the people mentioned in the credits as helping to fund the film was our own Carbon County resident, Jeremy Haloskie.  Thanks Jeremy.