Category: Uncategorized

Dear Group,

Today, this Friday, and this MLK weekend is time to get out and march, meet people, share community. and be seen. A schedule with links is found above. Yesterday, Thursday morning, the Spokesman Review provided a nice summary of events entitled “Three marches in four days: Indigenous, Women’s and MLK marches will advocate for unity, human rights this weekend.” Click on that, read up, and join a lot of other nice people. Come out, get to know the people you live with in this city. In the end it is all local…and this is where local starts.

Back on Monday.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. I still have an electronic Spokesman subscription ($19.50/month), so I cannot see what the paper throws up as a paywall. If you cannot see that article on account of a paywall please let me know in a “Reply” to this email. Thanks.

Dear Group, I look forward each Monday to Doug Muder’s weekly emails under the title The Weekly Sift. (I encourage you to visit his website and sign up for them.) Yesterday Mr. Muder ended his email with a must-see video. Remember when westerns on television came in 1/2 hour segments and often came with a moralistic overtone? The parallels between this episode of “Trackdown” (click “full episode” below) and our current predicament with the Trump shutdown are uncanny. I found myself questioning if this were a modern production made to look like 1950s TV, but, no, the main actor really is Robert Culp, and Robert Culp died in 2010 at the age of 79. Life imitates art: “Trackdown” aired on CBS between 1957 and 1959 and took place in Texas following the Civil War. The series followed Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman, played by Robert Culp, on his adventures protecting the people of the Lone Star State. The 30th episode of the show, titled “The End of The World,” premiered on May 9, 1958, and saw a con man named Walter Trump, played by Lawrence Dobkin, attempt to scam the entire town. The fictional Trump warned the Texans that apocalyptic meteors would strike the town at midnight, but he could protect everyone. … His solution was to build a wall made of magical metal that would repel the meteors and keep everyone safe. The full episode is on YouTube. Keep to the high ground, Jerry

Dear Group,

Save the date: Saturday, January 19, is the Spokane Women’s March. (That’s just 11 days from now, Saturday after the coming one!) The blurb below is copied from the Women’s March Spokane Facebook page. Come downtown and meet friendly people. It’s a celebration of what makes us human. Get involved in the local scene. See you there!

All inclusive, non-partisan, issue driven event, to rally our community together for the good of all women+ and allies.

Equal pay, raise your voice, racial equity, freedom from violence, quality child care, environmental justice, refugee and immigration practices, access to health care, education, women’s rights are human rights… all voices welcome.

Located in the convention center near the Opera House

10:00 Doors open Volunteer Action Fair

12:00 Rally with speakers and music

1:00 March line-up and route through downtown

post march convention center activities until 3:00

STA Schedule: [See P.S. Below]

Parking: meters and lots downtown

ADA accessible

ASL Interpreter

Food and beverage for purchase via Spokane Convention Center concessions

Women+s March Spokane endeavors to harness the power of diverse women in our community to create transformative social change; promote civil rights for every human regardless of age, gender, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, ability, religion, housing or economic status; amplify the work of community leaders and organizations to educate, mobilize, dialogue and engage our community in collective action to advance justice, equity, freedom, and inclusion.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. Here’s another novel idea: Ride the Spokane Transit Authority’s (STA) bus system! Here’s a link to a map of the system. Here’s a page with a transpiration planner. It’s fun…and, in my limited experience, it is on time. It’s cheaper than parking and you get to see our city from a different angle. Try it!

Dear Group, Today, June 3, as the 116th Congress opens, we may take some solace in sending McMorris Rodgers back to the House of Representatives in a powerless position, part of a Republican minority, having lost her flagship position as head of the House Republican Conference to Liz Cheney (R-WY). The Republicans have even fewer House women (13, down from 25) to chose from to smile behind their new minority leader, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).  Ms. Cheney comes from the over-represented state of Wyoming where two Senators and one Representative represent a population of only 579,315. In contrast, the average Congressional District contains 711,000 people (as of the 2010 census). She holds the same seat her father, Dick Cheney, held from 1979 to 1989. Recently Ms. Cheney made a little news in Wyoming. She announced she will forgo her salary until the government shutdown is resolved. I’d be more impressed if I thought delaying her salary could be a financial hardship for her and her family, but I’m sure there is plenty of money to go around. Her father was not only Vice President under George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense under George H. W. Bush, but also the CEO of Halliburton when he was between government jobs in the late 1990s. McMorris Rodgers was quoted in the NYTimes on December 29 in an article entitled “‘You Control Nothing’: House Republicans Brace for Life in the Minority”: Trying to find the bright side, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, a member of the departing Republican leadership, said it was an opportunity for Republicans to better hone their message. “Being in the minority is a chance to think big picture and be visionary and make sure we are drawing the contrast between us and the Democrats,” Ms. McMorris Rodgers said. “As Republicans, we really need to focus on what it is going to take to win back the voters we lost in 2018.” “We lost too many women, Republican women, in the suburbs and we lost men and women,” she said. “We must win hearts and minds, and we can do it.” She definitely has her work cut out for her. Her actions will be harder to track now that reporters won’t be seeking out her opinion as a supposedly prominent Republican. It will take diligence to keep watch over her, call her office with our concerns, and press her to hold real town halls. She must be called to account for the actions of her party and her “positive disruptor” as we head toward 2020. Keep to the high ground, Jerry

Dear Group,

I plan to take off the next two and a half weeks. The next time I plan to send out an email is Thursday, January 3, the same day the new U.S. Congress, the 116th, is seated. On that day all the legislation that didn’t become law in the last two year Congress, the 115th, resets. A congressperson has to put a new copy “in the hopper” to get started again. I’ve heard in the last two years there were around 700 bills passed by the House which the Senate never took up. I’m sure we’ll see many of these bills proposed again, but with less chance of getting by the House again this time around.

In 2019 there will be primary and general elections for municipal officials. These are elections for which voter turnout is typically low. It will behoove us to learn about the candidates and issues and to participate. This is where it starts. Personally, I find it much easier to gather information on candidates and issues nationally and state-wide than on counties, cities, and towns. Wikipedia and Google and even Ballotpedia are much less granular than a full understanding of our politics requires. I hope to clarify local civics for myself. Part of that process for me is writing about what I learn, so expect some missives on local government. 

I want to leave you with one striking example of the bias of Fox News. Tuesday evening after the surprise video of Trump, Pence, Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schemer sparing over Trump’s border wall I listened to and read a variety of media. When I got to FoxNews.com I found the following article posted at the top of their page as if they were reporting breaking news, not offering an opinion: “On border security, Pelosi and Schumer play politics while Trump fights to protect us.” (I looked for but did not see the small print “opinion” that appears with the web article now.) If you have ever wondered why conversing with a Fox News listener is like conversing with someone from another planet, reading this article will will offer an explanation. A constant with Fox News is the blurred line between opinion and reporting.

Enjoy the holiday season. I wish us all…and our country…well. Back on January 3. 

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

Dear Group,

Newt Gingrich, The Man Who Broke Politics (The Atlantic), was followed by Republican Dennis Hastert. Hastert served as Speaker of the House from 1999 to 2007. He resigned to become a lobbyist rather than serving in the minority in the House following the Democratic takeover in 2006. According to wikipedia [with a reference therein] Hastert “was the longest-serving Republican Speaker of the House in history, and is currently the highest-ranking holder of a political office in U.S. history to have served a prison sentence.” He is also the man whose name is attached to the Hastert Rule:

Under House rules, the Speaker schedules floor votes on pending legislation. The Hastert Rule says that the Speaker will not schedule a floor vote on any bill that does not have majority support within his or her party — even if the majority of the members of the House would vote to pass it. The rule keeps the minority party from passing bills with the assistance of a minority of majority party members.

The standard application of the Hastert Rule in the U.S. Congress is a barrier to bi-partisan cooperation and a reason for the dysfunction of Congress of which so many Americans disapprove.

The same Republican tactic applies to the Senate. S. 422: Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2017. It is a two page bill that clarifies “Served in the Republic of Vietnam” to include the “territorial seas of such Republic.” The effect is to provide service-connected medical coverage to veterans for certain diseases related to the use of herbicides, veterans who served in Vietnam’s coastal waters.

You can see Jon Tester (D-MT) give a short speech on the subject here. The House already passed a similar bill with same name but a different number, H.R. 299, on June 25, 2018 (382 for to 45 against). Even McMorris Rodgers voted for it. The Senate bill has 53 co-sponsors, 38 Democrats, 14 Republicans, and 1 Independent. It seems clear other Senators would vote yea and carry the bill over the 60 vote hurdle if the bill came to the Senate floor. Time is limited, however. The whole process resets with the seating of the new Congress on January 3, 2019. Govtrack gives S. 422 only a 4% chance of becoming law. Mitch McConnell, as Senate majority leader, is unwilling to schedule a vote. It seems this is a Senate version of the Hastert Rule, a great contribution to Republican induced Congressional gridlock for which every Senator is made to bear the blame in the public’s perception of Congress.

McConnell would probably argue the Senate has more important things to accomplish before year’s end, like avoiding a Trump-led government shutdown over border wall funding. Perhaps he’s right, but if the Republican majority Congress cannot get its act together to deal with a simple piece of legislation like The Blue Water Navy Bill why should we believe it would be any speedier in reviewing rules painstakingly established by executive agencies? Remember that the next time you hear McMorris Rodgers advocating for the REINS Act (Regulations of the Executive in Need of Scrutiny). (CMR is a co-sponsor of this long running Republican attempt to cripple executive agencies.)

My condemnation of the so-called Hastert Rule is a little unusual since I’m applying it to the Senate, whereas the Speaker of the House who  follow the rule. The Senate has become more partisan and less collegial under McConnell. Now the same partisan, winner-takes-all principle in the House is on display in the Senate as well. In the House, Democratic Speakers in general have not gone along with “the majority of the majority” concept, whereas Republican Speakers have. If you’re interested in an accounting of that statement visit “Speakers’ views and use of the policy” in the wikipedia article on the Hastert Rule. Partisan gridlock is owned by the Republicans.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

Dear Group,

Some days ago I listened to a program segment on National Public Radio on KPBX on suicide and our declining average lifespan in the United States. I like numbers and I firmly believe there is truth to be found in properly gathered data and statistical analysis. The word “statistics” has been in use since the mid 17th century. It is derived from the word “state” to describe demographic and economic data gathered by the government to better understand the state. Statistical analysis of the data the state gathered came later with the development of probability theory and the branch of mathematics we call statistics. 

When we hear a comprehensive presentation of a topic on a radio segment, what do we retain? I came away from the KPBX presentation on suicide with only two things, a number and story. Since I was driving at the time I couldn’t take notes, and, to my great frustration, I cannot locate an audio copy of the presentation I heard…so I’m left with my fragmentary memory. 

The number I did retain was 70,000. My recollection from the radio program was 70,000 was the current annual number of suicides in the U.S. It’s a big number and getting bigger. But as a stand alone statistic, does it leave an impression? The mental stickiness of the number 70,000 can be improved if the listener remembers there are around 35,000 annual automobile fatalities in the United States or remembers roughly 58,000 Americans died in the entire Vietnam War. I had to look up both those comparison numbers. Stop and think, do you have a mental reference point for the number 70,000?

In contrast, I retain a story, a vivid image from the KPBX presentation, an image that keeps popping up in my mind, even though the details of the story presented may themselves be fragmentary. The narrator said with the extraordinary number of deaths it was becoming more and more common that dead bodies must be transferred to a funeral home from one small town to another twenty-five or thirty miles down the road. Why? Because the refrigerator space that was once adequate in the funeral homes of many small towns is now often full.

I grew up a half a block from a funeral home. We lived next door to the funeral director’s family. My uncles lived on a farm and were occasional grave-diggers for the country cemetery across the road. I vividly remember the turmoil in my extended family when I was five and my grandmother died. I cannot get out of my mind the image of a family grieving being told the body of their loved would have to be shipped down the road because there’s no more room…

Such is the power of story…and the failure of numbers to impress and stick with us. 

When a story is presented there usually little argument. When a statistic is presented the reflex of the listener is often to attempt to deny or diminish the significance of the data rather than engage over what the data means. Data is essential to truth and understanding–but it needs to serve a supporting role to our values and our experience. 

We need to tell stories. Stories sink in where statistics often bounce off. We were programed this way. It is not by accident that Jesus taught in parables, not Roman census numbers. Every Sunday morning people in this country go to church and hear stories from the pulpit. That fact was not lost on the Republican/Libertarians when, especially in 1990s under Gingrich, some of the church-going public began to hear stories welding christianity to Republican politics. 

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry