Paul LePage and Education

It is nice to know that our Governor knows who the bad guys are. Superintendents, Administrators, and most of all Teachers. These folks who we send our children to each and everyday are the reason education suffers in Maine and elsewhere. If all of these folks would just accept less in terms of wages and benefits everything would be all better.

Did you have a discussion with a child where you asked them what happened when there was something that did not go the way they wanted. They thought about it and could not really come up with an easy answer, so what did they do, they raised there head and pointed at the person who had been with them and blamed them. This is what our Governor and his ilk do. They do not have the foggiest idea of how to make education work better in this state. What they do know however is that the best defense is a good offense. So lets blame these people over here.

Teachers after working ten or fifteen years in Maine might make 40 to 50 thousand a year. Do we really think that is too much, do we really think that this makes them someone to villify in budget battles. Is the argument that I have worked that long at my job and I do not make that much really sufficient? We cannot simultaneously hold up teachers as people to admire, encourage our children in contemplating a career that teaching is an honorable profession, and then continue to begrudge them a salary that no one is getting rich from.

Our Governor is all about the stick. He says if kids need remedial classes in college then we should make their high schools pay the cost. This is a great idea, rather than addressing why school districts are struggling lets set up a punitive measure that will hurt their budget anymore.

Simply put this Governor is a blustering buffoon. There are good people from both sides of the aisle that want the best for our children. First and foremost we should realize that the state is not paying it's constitutionally required amounts toward education, until this duty is kept the idea of begrudging teachers their wages is just window dressing.

Each budget season our schools are laying off teachers and reducing services. What message does this send to our young people? We all know that on a state and federal level we have budget problems that at times seem unfix-able. Cutting education as part of a yearly process, seems to me to make one wonder where it ends.

Every time we allow cuts, vilify teachers, and look for easy answers we are being hypocrites to our spoken value of education. The Governor with his constant demagoguery does nothing but what we have come to expect of him, that is to make a bad situation much, much, worse.

Global Warming Thoughts

I have never got that wrought up over Global Warming. Perhaps because it is hard to see the effects of it, perhaps it is just my interior selfishness, or more likely it is because most of the folks most concerned about global warming are so annoying that they reduce the effectiveness of their message.

A good friend of mine, who is a Conservative, always said that he did not dispute Global Warming, but he thought that perhaps the science of stating that man was solely responsible and even able to effect a reduction was perhaps wrong.

I have just read a book called Why Geography Matters. Well I should say I am in the process of reading it but Chapter 3 which talks about the Earth's Era's, Ice Ages, Extinctions and such is quite revelatory.

Look outside your window. Did you know that we are in an Ice Age. It is true. One of the things that becomes very apparent if you do any research in this subject is you cannot really trust the news media on either side of the issue, most of the talking heads either have an agenda or are too dumb to even interpret the basic facts in a cogent way.

Just as in winter when we gets lots of snow and people scoff at global warming, today with it above 100 degrees in the Midwest few would agree that we are in an Ice Age. Both are true. They are however relative statements.

Over the last 120 thousand years we have been in the most recent Ice Age. Against popular opinion however Ice Ages are not all cold. They are periods of approximately 10,000 years of glaciation, when ice spreads lower toward the equator, and interglacials, periods of about 10,000 years where the Earth warms and the ice recedes. Now the first thing we need to know is Mother Nature does not operate on an exact schedule so all numbers are estimates but what becomes quickly apparent is this.

Yes we are in a warming period. This has been predictable for the whole time of man's existence on Earth. The difference is that in this most recent interglacial Man has come out of caveman days and accomplished all that we see today. Thus, with our great accomplishments we think that we have caused global warming and that we can stop it. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A couple things are true or at least likely. Man and fossil fuels have most likely added to the warming that is happening, perhaps we have accelerated the rate. We must know however that inevitable is the progression to whatever the peak warming is, and inevitable is the next reversal that will lead to a cooling climate.

As the author notes global warming will cause drought, starvation, changing ocean levels and much calamity. That however will be a fraction of the changes to all life on the planet when the next period of glaciation begins. Should we worry about that? No, there is no sense, it will not be in our lifetimes and likely not in anyone in our direct lines. Global warming will effect us sooner than the next cooling.

What we should all keep in mind however is how little we matter to the cycles of the Earth. We just need to get a little humility. We are just not that important to the planet we live on. It has come through much greater calamities than we have ever placed or will place on it.

If possible should we attempt to be better stewards of the Earth. Of course. After all doing what is right is always the right thing to do. However when those on the left say that if we reduce emissions we can eventually stop global warming from increasing, it is just a falsehood. Global warming is part of a never ending cycle.

This is an example of how the real truth is available for anyone who wants to spend time finding it. The truth is rarely on The Fox or MSNBC.

Global Warming exists. It will affect the quality of life on Earth. It is however not reversible. And man's influence on the cycle as a whole is so minute as to be unimportant in the big picture.

Where is Safe

So now it has come to this. A midnight showing of a movie is not safe. A place where people. often young people. go excited to be the first to experience a new movie, to do something fun and hopefully create a memory, is a place where a madmen can decide to make himself famous or as one should say infamous.

My son went to the midnight showing of Batman Thursday night here in Bangor. I did not think twice about his safety. Who would? As I said to his Mother on Friday what can you do, put them in a bubble, lock them in a room?

A few years ago when their was a spate of school shootings I dropped something off one day for my daughter then in second grade and as I spoke to the nice older lady receptionist in the school I realized that there is no place that is safe. As I walked into school and saw the sign that said Visitors must check in at the office, I pictured this nice sixty year old lady jumping on someone who walked in with a semi automatic rifle.

The point is that as humans and especially at parents we want to feel like what we do makes a difference. That if we do the right things we can keep our children safe? We cannot. I suppose we could become an armed camp. Consider this however, think how much people complain about how tedious it is to get on a plane since the increased measures since 9/11? What do we do at movie theaters and shopping malls? Metal detectors? It will not work.

Living in the world we live in we need to understand that the chances of an individual heinous act affecting you is lower than perhaps it has ever been, but any illusion that you can realistically protect yourself is gone.

The fact is if someone does not care about their own life and what happens to them they have the ability to create a massive amount of destruction and harm. The American people will not, in the long term, wish to live with the level of precaution that would be necessary to negate this fact.

We can sit and discuss what would posses someone to do something like this? We can never know? We can talk about the culture, violent video games, movies, television, the fact that this young man had a semi automatic assault weapon legally, and talk about our crass, violent, culture. None of it matters. It is where we live and the likelihood of our culture changing back to a softer fifties culture is gone. Can small changes be made. Sure? Should we examine our values and what creates the circumstances that brings these events, sure. Let us now though think about the victims and their families.

How many times this summer has my son gone to a midnight showing to a movie. Three actually? If he did not come home from that movie, if he endured something so unthinkable how would I feel. I would feel helpless. We all are helpless in the face of an evil like this? You cannot predict it and the very nature of its randomness makes us feel even more ineffectual.

I am a moderate. I am not a member of the gun lobby and I do not understand how the NRA can justify someone having an automatic assault rifle as a freedom that was guaranteed by our forefathers. I think the NRA is far cry from the organization that my father and your father supported decades ago that talked about responsible gun ownership and the desire of the NRA to limit weapons purchases. Find an article or history of the NRA and you will see that the last thirty years has created a total change in the philosophy of the organization.

Still I have friends who are members of the NRA and believe in gun rights and they will tell me sincerely that if someone had a gun with them at one of these events as they occurred, the gunmen would be stopped right away. And they are correct.

Watch an episode of Bonanza and notice that everyone carries a firearm. If you raise a firearm you know that the people you are firing on will be people who have weapons of their own.

I do not know the answer. Blaming any one idea or group will solve nothing. It may well be that the only answer is talking to each other and coming up with real dialogue that will bring people together with an answer.

The American people are overwhelmingly and good and caring? They also, however, have short attention spans, and are very easily manipulated by rheotoric from both sides of the political spectrum.

I just want to send my children to a movie or the mall without fear of some nut with a gun? Is that too much to ask?

What They Should Be Talking About

And while Mitt Romney and for that matter the President dither around with Mitt's tax returns and The President's birthplace this is what is going on in the World in the last month.

Syria has collapsed into a full Civil War. For eighteen months mass slaughter has taken place, women and children routinely slaughtered while the West looks on. Yesterday a bombing took place that killed President Assad's Vice President, his Security Chief and others. Fighting now is in Damascus. Some think that Assad's grip might be reaching it's tenuous end. However the chemical weapons stockpile still exist. Would Assad, and more practically those in his loyal military use these weapons on his own people. Is their a country that would give Assad free passage? Assad has not been seen in two weeks, does anyone know where he is? What form will the eventual government take? Will it be Radical Islamist? Can this be the devil they do not know for Israel? Actually worse that Assad?

In Egypt the Military tribunal running the country has dissolved Parliament In the promised free election a member of the Muslim Brotherhood was victorious. Clearly the Generals did not want this but even they could not manipulate the returns without causing a crisis. So they have allowed him to be sworn in but let us be clear the Generals still hold the power. This is a time bomb waiting to go off. We should keep in mind that through the Suez Canal passes almost all of the oil shipped to the West.

Yesterday a bus filled with Israeli tourists were killed in Bulgaria by a bomber. Israel quickly blamed Iran. Iran blames Israel for sabotage to it's nuclear program and for the deaths or disappearance of at least six of their nuclear scientists. Bebe Netanyahu has no real vision for peace with the Palestinians and demographically each day Israel is in a worse position.

Greece, France, Spain, Italy and Ireland still teeter on economic collapse and the United States will be affected by this.

This is just the high level issues. At least three potential or current Civil Wars are brewing in Africa. Afghanistan is a cesspool we cannot get out of fast enough and Iraq is far from stable.

The problems of Europe are systematic and offer us a vision of our future if we cannot come to grips with our own financial crisis. Here is the kicker, they are actually in better shape than us as they do not have a military complex such as ours. Consider this, in Europe they talk about making cuts to social programs. In America we need to cut our military and this will add more people to the social net. In effect they are one step ahead of us.

And us, we cannot agree to raise one dollar in tax revenue for ten dollars in cuts. Something is wrong with this picture.

Perhaps there is still time to talk about all of these issues. In actuality Romney and Obama disagree over almost everything and a good debate about the future of our country could be had. It is unlikely however. Both candidates know that the attention span of the American people is much more likely to be gained by the use of the word foreign to describe The President and Mitt Romney saying he likes to fire people.

Demand more. Do not reward small behavior. This is our only chance to get a government we can be proud of.

Mitt Romney : Clown Candidate

So now we are left with this Mitt Romney. And not just us in the center are left with this Mitt Romney but our friends the Republicans are left with him. Let us be clear, a great deal, the great majority of Republicans, are good people who just have a slightly different belief system than me. A great deal of these Republicans had concerns about Mitt Romney. They questioned his Conservatism from the beginning.

Still, the clown show the Republicans paraded around this spring made his nomination inevitable and for the last few months Republicans have dutifully tried to get excited about the possibility of a President Romney.

We, who are not Republicans, usually talk about the Koch Brothers and the other evil figureheads of the Republican party but most Republicans are just like you and me. These are the people right now who are realizing that they bought a pig in a poke as the saying goes.

Can you imagine how a Missouri schoolteacher, who goes to church each Sunday, raises three kids on a middle class salary feels about this Presidential candidate who has Swiss Bank Accounts, Cayman Island Accounts, a Car Elevator, Dancing Horses, and refuses to release his tax returns. Do you think they feel good about this. How can they? They may not like Obama, and in fact surely do not, but is this what they envisioned when they tried to line up behind the Mittster.

If your claim to be President is that you ran a successful business what does it mean when much of that company's success was based on gutting businesses, reducing wages and benefits, and in many cases actual employees, outsourcing jobs, and on and on it goes. Then you find out that Romney was still listed as the owner of the company three years, at least, after he claimed he was no longer in control. When questioned about this Romney says that we do not understand business. Evidently only the Mittster is intelligent enough to understand his deviousness.

Throw this all together with his seeming refusal to release his tax returns and it is clear that Mr. Romney is hiding something. This man has been running for President for six years, why would he not get his finances cleaned up enough for public perusal. It is hard to understand and yet he clearly has not. Perhaps he never thought he would have to release them, but if that is so clearly he is not cognizant of history.

The President is a flawed candidate and is easily beatable. However, let us be clear, if Romney blows this opportunity for the Republicans he will go down as their version of Mike Dukakis.

Actually upon review there is quite a bit of similarity between these two. Claiming that their success in Massachusetts will transfer nationally, both cold and emotionless, and clearly tone deaf to the American public, Romney and Dukakis have more in common than our Midwestern Republican friends would like to think about.

This is always the fissure in the Republican party. The moderate easterners and the conservatives from the West and Midwest.

Romney could still win, as this might well be a referendum on Obama as much as Romney but he is a terrible candidate. When The National Review and George Will state that your actions regarding your tax returns are giving the appearance of secretiveness and malfeasance then you have a problem.

Mitt Romney has a problem. My kids know I am really frustrated when I call someone a clown. It is my bad adjective. Mitt Romney is a clown.

Author's Note

As most of you who read this know I have been afflicted with a degenerative muscle disease. I do not ask for sympathy, I only advise this to let you know that I have been finding it harder and harder to type without pain.

Therefore I am attempting to now dictate my entries into my Iphone using Suri. Thus far it is working pretty well, I try to catch any errors in translation but know that at some point I will miss some.

I enjoy writing however, it gives voice to the conversations I used to have daily with my friends at work, and I need to continue to do so.

I ask that you as readers please offer as much forbearance as you can for any mistakes that may appear. If, a mistake is glaring enough so as to negate the obvious intent of the post or the meaning of the sentence it appears in I urge you to please leave a comment letting me know. It would be much appreciated.

Thank you again for your loyalty and patience.

Mr. LePage At It Again

Did you ever know someone who did something outrageous a couple of times and you thought it was if not funny at least a little entertaining. Then, when they continue to make a fool of themselves it starts to not be funny anymore and then you feel embarrassed for them. Eventually if they continue you are not only embarrassed for them but for yourself for still associating with them.

This is the path our Governor has gone down. I honestly have lost track of how many times LePage has done or said something that goes beyond stupid into the embarrassing. Clearly this is a man that needs people to pay attention to him, even if it is for setting fire to himself.

In his most recent episode of insanity the Governor made his weekly radio address and referred to the IRS as the new Gestapo. This comment has created a great deal of heat on the Governor and correctly so. The comment was made in reference to the Affordable Healthcare Act commonly referred to as Obamacare. As we all know the Supreme Court, the Conservative led Supreme Court, has ruled that the health care law is constitutional. At some point our Government on all levels has got to move on. If, as Republicans you go to the Supreme Court for help, and they being Conservative vote against you it might be time to realize that you are not on the winning side here.

LePage does nothing to make things better with his Gestapo comments. Now most of the furor has been because the use of the word Gestapo is offensive to Jewish citizens. And of course that is the truth. For me though, and I am clearly in the minority here, the offense is the use of the word Gestapo to describe those people who work for the IRS.


Let us make sure we have a clear picture of what kind of people work for the IRS. People who work for the IRS are people who have families and children. They often work hard to help people with tax problems. One man who worked for the IRS was Vernon Hunter, a 68 year old Texas IRS worker who was killed when a man angry at the IRS flew his small plane into the IRS building in his Texas town. Hunter had been a military veteran, serving two tours of duty in Vietnam, eventually retiring from the service to enjoy his children, grandchildren and a well deserved retirement. As is the case with some people however Mr. Hunter had to stay busy. He was a substitute teacher until he was eventually recruited by the IRS to work for them. He had been doing so for a number of years. Does this sound like a member of the Gestapo to you?

When public officials and our very own Governor, as well as others including crazy Iowa Congressman Steve King, refer to government employees, including IRS employees as bureaucrats and worse, often much worse, like Gestapo they do nothing to further the lines of communication and respect in this country.

If you are upset with the IRS and our leaders refer to them as bloodsucking bureaucrats and members of the Gestapo is it really that big a leap to take action of a violent nature against them. Now, surely, most people can differentiate political rhetoric, even cheap, grandstanding, political rhetoric as just that but we must understand that some cannot.

I would like Mr. LePage to tell me, to tell us as his electorate, what he can possibly gain by referring to the IRS as the Gestapo. Does he think that he can make people hate the IRS more? Look, we all wish our taxes were lower. Myself included. Next year my son is 17, and we will lose our child care tax credit of $1000.00. I do not like that, trust me my son is not eating any less, but I do not blame the IRS workers for it. The fact is this. If you are paying taxes then you are making money. If you are paying a great deal in taxes you are making a great deal of money. Fifty years ago it was common for people, including Republicans, to consider paying their taxes as a patriotic thing to do.

Now it is done begrudgingly. Mr. LePage by using comments such as this shows unfortunately what he is. A cheap, grandstanding, thug. Do you know a German word that fits that definition. Maybe THAT would be applicable.

Homeless in Santa Barbara, Bangor and the Bible

If there is anything that makes me conflicted it is when one talks about homeless people. Bangor has a pretty significant homeless population. More than one would or should expect in a town of this size but of course Bangor is not typical of a town of this size nationwide. Across the country a town of this size is a blip, one of many in each state. In Maine Bangor is the one of the largest communities and the shopping and cultural center for a large geographic area. Services are offered here that are not offered anywhere else.

If we have a larger than average homeless population and we have a basic idea of what attracts folks down on their luck to Bangor the next question we need to ask is what do we do to help them, if you believe helping them is the right thing to do.

One fact that we cannot dismiss is that, at least for a small segment of the homeless population in Bangor, they are homeless because they choose to be. We all know the faces of at least a few middle aged and older men that we have seen on the streets of Bangor for ten or more years. Services are plentiful in Bangor and these men have made a choice to partake of the services and live their lives on the edge of society. It is assumed that they may have substance abuse issues but I do not know this. What is more important is that we do not let these few who make these choices cloud our thoughts on the many that do not choose to be homeless. If you talk to the folks who run the shelters and services for folks such as these they will tell you that families with children are a growing segment of the population. No one should begrudge any help we can offer to these people.

Which brings me to an article in Rolling Stone a week ago that featured the story of several people and families that live as homeless people in Santa Barbara, California. Santa Barbara, known for its mild climate is, if one needs to be, a good place to be homeless. It has also created a program to fill a need that no town wants to fill. So many people are homeless in Santa Barbara that the city has created a safe parking permit program that allows people living in their cars to park overnight in assigned lots that the owners of such have made available. The folks we meet in the article have for the most part been living in church parking lots and the like. We meet people who at one point were productive members of society, business owners, members of the military, full families. It is a sad tale. We, not in this position, are tempted to think that something has happened to these people that with different choices on their part could have been prevented. Surely that is possible in some cases, for the most part however these folks are simply people caught in an economy that collapsed, a job market that increasingly is casting aside former active members, and especially older workers ten or more years from retirement but too old to be hired by the younger people often interviewing.

So is there a difference between the homeless in Bangor and the homeless in Santa Barbara. For the most part yes, but not always. What Santa Barbara is doing is trying to differentiate the homeless that are victims of the economy and those that are homeless due to the typical problems that beget homelessness: mental illness and substance abuse of some kind being the primary reasons.

Bangor, for those who do not know it, is undergoing a crime wave. I have never felt anything but secure in my home, in my nice comfortable neighborhood here in Bangor. In the last months though we have had a couple of friends and acquaintances tell us their homes have been burglarized, we have seen a rash of robberies at local pharmacies and for me personally I have noticed a steady contingent of people walking aimlessly around and or through our neighborhood. I live in a street with four houses, it easy to know who is a resident. Many blame the homeless and certainly some of the crimes being committed are by homeless folks, it seems drugs are also a huge problem. Bath salts, oxy contin, prescription drugs, the abuse of these drugs seems be seeping down to affect our lives in our quiet little suburbs.


What is to be done? I have not a clue. I usually argue that locking people up for drug abuse is stupid. And yet when people commit crimes for their drug habits what is to be done. With budgets continually being cut help with addiction problems seems to be shrinking and of course one always has to know who really wants to be helped. I right here admit I do not have the answer.

I am frustrated however that for the first time I am conscious of this issue here in my town. So frustrated in fact that the other day I did something my wife has severely chastised me for. Last Sunday we witnessed another man wandering down our street, looking around, meandering at best to no apparent destination. Not a crime by any means but certainly not someone who looked like he had any apparent reason for being here. Later in the day as I was leaving my home, no one else was home, he walked by again. I stayed in the driveway and watched him. He looked at peoples houses, yards and again seemed to have no destination. He looked disheveled and out of place. I watched him look into a neighbors garage, he turned the corner, and then came back and looked again. From my experience watching television he certainly seemed up to no good. So, and you have to understand I am frustrated, frustrated that I have to even think about these things, I back out of the driveway, drive up the road a bit and pull up to the man and ask him if he is looking for something. He shuffles quickly away and says no. I state that I am just asking because I have seen him around a couple times today and wanted to make sure that he did not need something. He told me in a non polite way to do something physically impossible and walked away.

Was this smart? Hardly. Was it the right thing to do? No. Was it charitable? No description of my actions can be taken as charitable.

We have all heard the story of Jesus rebuking a person who he said saw him without food and clothing and did nothing to help him. Who saw him without shelter and did not offer him any. The person being rebuked says Jesus I did no such thing I never saw you. Jesus says " that which you do to the least amongst you, you do to me." So if we do not help people down on their luck, if we chase them out of our neighborhoods are we treating Jesus this way?

I have elderly neighbors who complain about the people you see begging on the medians and stoplights around town. They state that they would never give them anything. And yet these are some of the nicest, most generous, sincerely sweet and gracious people you have ever met. How do we become so hardened to the poor that we have these feelings?

So as one can see, I am conflicted. I have no answers. I do not want to be one of those people who does not trust people who are different and down on their luck. And yet last weekend I might have chased Jesus out of my neighborhood.