Presidential Health-fulness

From the get-go, my gut was on edge. I was not an early adopter of Obamamania. I had no faith in him. He got my vote because I was terrified of the alternative. My take? He was inexperienced, naive, and a capitulator by nature.

Sometimes, it hurts to be right. Bush had an excuse for his performance -- actually, he had many. Stupidity. A fundamentally distorted value system. Evangelical lunacy. Backing from a Republican machine that had him by the short-hairs.

Obama has none of these excuses. I'm left with the conclusion that he is a poser, captive of his Corporate masters, a coward and utterly inept at leading and governing. This is no better than Bush, and you could conclude he is worse. Obama had sufficient backing to lead with vision and he squandered it.

So, he hasn't been health-ful for the country, its people, or the planet. He has made no meaningful progress on bank regulation, job-losses, health security, climate change, clean energy, de-militarization, or delusional empire-building for the sake of "security". He has accomplished nothing on the foreign policy front other than killing Bin Laden. Big whoop. And if the news reports on the "debt ceiling" debacle are accurate, he is selling out Social Security, Medicare, and damn near anything else to get a deal with the devil.

We are all in terrible jeopardy, far more than most of us realize. An election looms and for the first time in my adult life, I'm not sure whether or not I'll sit it out or support a third party at the presidential level while attempting to secure a Democratic Congress ...though I'm no longer convinced that our corporate-owned government can serve anything other than the narrow interests of the global corporate hegemony.

I took my Obama stickers off my car. I'm ashamed to have voted for him. I will not give a dime to his campaign.

Barack Obama. No, he can't.

Economic Blind Faith

Paul Krugman wrote a column today titled, "Financial Policy Despair". Reading it sure didn't cheer me up, though the market was expected to open 'up' today. What does it mean that when my most trusted economist gets depressed, the markets rebound?

Makes sense, when you think about it. Krugman, and some other economists who have zero interest vested in 'the way things are', continue to feel increasing despair over the Obama/Geithner management team. It's clear to me that the market has ceased to reflect anything meaningful regarding the true state of the economy. Translate -- whether or not the majority of Americans are going to hang on through all of this. Instead, it's a barometer of how confident Wall Street is that the Big Boys will recover their gold. And when the Big Boys are happy, a chill starts to trickle through me.

I supported Obama. I had great hope and I'm trying hard to hang on to all those good feelings I had when he won the election. He wasn't my first choice because I believed he didn't have a solid vision nor the requisite personality traits to play hardball. Hillary was my choice, and I'm still convinced she would have provided stronger and more progressive leadership. But I have stood behind Obama because for all our flaws as Democrats, and Obama's flaws in particular, we can't afford Republicans running things any time soon.

But now I'm really, really worried. First, for the economic near- and long-term. Here in Kansas City, local job losses are mounting. It's much worse than I expected -- unemployment at 8.2% and growing. The worst-case scenarios being played out are nearly immobilizing in their implications. Much more stimulus money is going to be needed, but that's at risk as Obama listens to people deeply embedded in the Wall Street mentality.

Secondly, if Obama's policies fail -- and I think the risk of that is growing -- then the Democrats will be in deep difficulty politically at the mid-term elections. That will compromise any other transformative change we need to make in this country. Health care and the environment will be in even greater peril.

I haven't yet figured out how to influence any of this. I feel completely impotent. The best I can do is plan and work towards personal and community-based survival strategies that help us weather the deeper crash that may yet lie ahead. Let's hope our communal creativity won't be tested.

Beware: New Jobs for Kansas

Oh, they are getting really coy, those promoters of dirty energy. And they've got my number (and probably yours too). I got a call a couple of hours ago, asking me if I would call Sheryl Spalding to urge her to support more jobs for KS and passage of HB2014, which would bring new energy plants to Kansas. Ah ...they thought they'd reached a dumb, uninformed Kansan. I innocently asked: "Are those coal-fired plants?" The young man answered, "Yes". And I said back, "Never in your lifetime will I support those plants." He hung up. But seriously, you know they are polling, encouraging people to support "more jobs for Kansas", and using those duped consumers to justify passage of a bill few consumers want. But how many of you would have figured out exactly what they wanted you to support? If you'd said, "Yes, I support a way to bring new jobs to Kansas", even without making that call to your representative, you would have been put in the column of people who want those coal plants. And they are gonna use those numbers.

To refresh your memories on the issue: there are some new coal-fired plants up for approaval in Kansas -- again. The efforts to block them, lead in large part by the Kansas Sierra Club chapter, were described in the most recent issue of Sierra, the Club's magazine. For two legislative sessions, the bills authorizing those plants have passed the legislature. Governor Sibelius vetoed them both times. And each time, the legislature failed to over-ride her veto by thin margins. We are poised to have that same battle again: Sibelius has vowed to veto the current bill; a meer forty-plus brave souls in the legislature -- the number needed to sustain her veto -- stand between the people of Kansas and the corporate interests that will steal our health and despoil the planet forever.

Let me be clear, as is well out-lined in this news article, most Kansans oppose the construction of these plants. The plants will do nothing to lower utility rates; their power will be sent out-of-state. We get the construction jobs to build them, a few jobs to run them, and all the pollution with none of the benefits to the local electric grid. Oh, and the legislature is also using these bills to attempt to restrict the ability of the Kansas Dept of Health and Environment to regulate power plant emissions, one of the few protections citizens have if the compromise bill passes.

And one last minor detail -- there is money in the federal stimulus bill to fund clean energy in states that meet certain criteria. If Kansas approves these plants, we will not qualify for that clean energy investment money.

Bottom line: Kansans need to contact their legislators and push them to uphold any veto by the governor. You can find out who your legislators are here. Make your voice heard -- For the Health of It.

Boomer and Busted

This is not fun. The whole lot of us, are going mad ... and feeling mad ....and soon, we'll be behaving badly. You just watch.

This week, MSNBC posted this story: "Boomers Face Stark Choices in a Bleak Economy". Now there's a headline that'll turn your blood to ice.

The article lays out the daunting tasks ahead for people my age who are too young and too financially vulnerable to retire. Between the crash in the housing market -- where most of us stashed a big chunk of our money -- and the crash in the stock market -- where our alleged retirement savings safely resided for "the long term" -- we've been left floundering. More dire, our jobs are at risk and when we lose them, many of us never find another. Today, even the poorly paying ones in retail and low-paying service businesses, are vanishing.

Losing your job when you are in your 50s and 60s is nothing like the experience when you are in your prime -- your 30s and 40s. Ageism rules, and don't for a minute think it doesn't. You are too expensive to hire -- not just the overt salary cost, but the cost of your health care may be higher. Your experience makes people reluctant to place you in a lower level job, where you might cause trouble for your (almost certainly younger) boss. You are presumed to be less adaptable intellectually, less technologically savvy, less interested in new approaches to work. And you are expected to tire easily and resist working long hours.

Most of this is bullshit. And if you've ever worked with a lot of 30- somethings, you should have some pretty eye-opening experience with the gap between the baby boomer work ethic and the one held by younger workers. But I digress. The bottom line: if we lose a job, we aren't going to find one any time soon and if we do, it will pay less.

The article goes on to promote a return to school. Go ahead, retrain, "re-invent" yourself. OK. I'm good with that. I've done that more than once. The last time, I spent the majority of my life savings going to graduate school in my late 50s. It landed me my current job, which I've just been told may be at-risk. For all the hype around the potential for growth in the health care industry, many hospitals and physician groups are down-sizing. They may need workers, but they don't have money to pay them. So what are we supposed to reinvent ourselves to do??

Yeah, I know, we are all going to have to work until we die. OK, I'm "in". But the assumption is that the work will be there. I fear that it won't. If my hunch is right, then what? The burden of this reality is not going to strike my generation alone. For those of us with adult children, the possibility is growing that we are going to have to move back to multi-generational homes. Parents, grandparents, and grandchildren may begin to live together again, and we will all be living with less. Even if the economy begins to recover over the next 12-18 months, our savings and our jobs will never return to the levels they were before the Great Recession of 2009. We are facing an entirely different future than the one we envisioned.

Compounding it all is our guilt and shame. We almost certainly made mistakes ...investing badly out of ignorance, assuming the boom times would persist, getting hooked by the seductions of a consumer society. Now, even if we still have a job, we know how thin the ice is beneath our feet. Most of us cannot survive a catastrophe -- major housing expenses, a dire health care diagnosis, a job loss. We have vowed to work harder, to prove our value to our employer, to be willing to do whatever it takes to earn a living. But the dice may not land as we hope ...and so much is out of our control. The article notes that we have become increasingly isolated, for we don't want to let on how scared and vulnerable we are. We are a proud and mostly optimistic generation, who believed we could achieve all our dreams if we just worked hard enough. Here we are. With dreams and assumptions shattered, along with our security.

On the community level, we need to use our legendary boomer creativity to imagine other futures, other ways to live and be of value. We need to consider the potential for founding new businesses that have growth potential. And we need to loudly and aggressively lobby for universal, government sponsored health care -- the source of our largest expense, a major deterrent to entrepreneurial activity, and a primary reason for bankruptcy.

On the personal level, we need to talk. To our kids, to our friends. We need to be honest about the reality that at some point, despite our best efforts, we may not be able to afford to live on our own, much as we dread that possibility. Some good may come of that. We may create stronger and more compassionate families. We have much to teach our children and grandchildren, if they choose to value our experience and wisdom. But none of this was in our plan. We never intended on becoming more dependent than our own parents were. But if we've hit our high mark, and it is likely many of us have, we'd all -- parents and children -- best be thinking pragmatically about Plan D.

AgeWise Morphs

I have a reputation. For changing things. It annoys the hell out of some and excites a few. Me? I guess I thrive on it, despite the anxiety it always raises inside of me.

A few posts back I spoke about my personal future, where I was headed, what mattered to me. Coupled with my personal search, I've been thinking about realigning this blog for awhile, to bring greater focus to it beyond "the musings of an aging boomer". Today, I did some research on my postings, identifying themes (you'll notice some change in 'labels'). The result? Change.

"AgeWise" has become "The SpiritedNP: Change for the Health of It". This better reflects my blog's address in the great ether, as well as bringing a clearer focus. Health ...of individuals, our community, and the planet. They've always been interrelated but the interdependence is growing exponentially.

Health -- the root is an Old English word that means "whole". That's one broad concept -- to be(come) whole. In the 21st century, we've delegated achieving "health" to technocrats -- doctors, pharmaceutical researchers, nurse practitioners, dentists -- and have lost sight of the environmental, political, and spiritual components to health. Yet to achieve health, a complex web of relationships must function at the highest possible level. While health certainly comes from a culmination of personal choices, an important determinant of health results from the societal and political milieu in which we find ourselves. If that weren't true, then we'd be having a whole lot more health from living in the richest (are we still?) country in the world.

Yes, we make choices -- what we eat, how much we move around, the work we do, the relationships we make or abandon -- these choices and more, influence our health. But our health is also intimately wound up with how well or poorly we are governed -- for government policies and their enforcement shape the world we live in. Economic policy determines how wealth is distributed and greed is restrained; environmental policy determines the quality of our physical environment; agricultural policy determines what food we have available to eat. And so it goes.

Our country is facing the biggest challenges of my lifetime. And almost certainly, the biggest opportunities as well. We have the chance to become the healthiest country on earth, leaving an invaluable legacy to those we love. True patriots, in my view, are Americans who are willing to commit to a healthy lifestyle as well as lobbying for the changes needed to ensure a healthy environment. For only by achieving both, can we meaningfully reduce the economic burden on ourselves, our society and our families. Our President continues to remind us that the government can only do so much. It is obligated to act on our behalf, to bring about change that will ensure a healthy environment and economy. But while government can ensure that we have the resources to maximize our health, we have a personal responsibility to make wise choices. And wise choices are impossible if we are uninformed, if we cannot imagine the consequences of our actions.

This blog is dedicated to making its own small contribution to our ability to choose wisely, to bring about change "for the health of it".

Hope Is In the Air

OK, the stats are out this morning and the economy is contracting like a sponge in Death Valley. Bad, bad stuff. Worst numbers in over 25 years. This is not a sign of hope. And yes, I'm scared to death when I think about the next 3-5 years. So, why a post about "hope" for crying out loud? Have I lost my marbles?

No, I'm thinking about President Obama's joint congressional speech. He was quick to point people to the other side of this calamity -- growing opportunities to change things. I'm big on change, especially radical or transformative changes. Rarely are those kinds of changes considered, let alone attempted, in stable times. The New Deal is a prime example.

Of course, those kinds of big changes can also have substantial negative impact, depending on who's at the helm. Prime examples are the radical policy changes of Reagan and Dubya. They utterly transformed our country -- eroding the Middle Class, nurturing the wealthy, fostering corporate greed, limiting people's access to the American Dream, despoiling the environment, compromising civil rights -- I could go on, but it gets too depressing and enraging. I'm not naive. Change can be a force for evil as well as good.

But there are signs that after this misery is over, transformative, progressive change will come. Here are some:

1- A story in this morning's New York Times describes the public's response to the cadre of Republican governors who are refusing to expand unemployment benefits because it would "hurt business". The stimulus money comes with some strings attached -- and those strings are designed to provide benefits to workers who, for technical reasons, are being denied state benefits. Guess who's pissed off? Might it be workers? People in deep Red states who are seeing just what those Republican governors really value? You know, the ones who fight for the lives of the "unborn" but who are more than happy to screw the living if it protects business interests. C'mon guys. Keep it up. That is the best way I know to turn your state Blue the next time around.

2- Yesterday's news was the release of the President's budget. Word is that the budget will attempt to rapidly dismantle programs reflecting President Reagan's cynical view of government and his me-first, screw-the-commons policy positions. Rachel Maddow listed very effectively last night (don't you just love her??), ways in which the new budget will support efforts to limit climate change, promote reform of health care and education, encourage energy and transportation innovation, place limits on gas and oil companies, bring reduced subsidies to large agribusinesses, and overhaul the tax code to bring more economic balance to society.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

You gotta give the Republicans credit: They consistently put their money where there values are. Well, it's our turn. President Obama is about to insert Democratic values into his budget process. Any and all of his proposed changes will significantly alter American life and policy for the next generation and perhaps beyond. Hey Gipper? You spinning in your grave yet?

3- None of the changes that Liberals want can come unless the ranks of Republicans holding power are thinned (see #1). So public outcry against the Neanderthal economic policies of Republican governors and Congressmen/women is essential. But we also need Democrats to stand up and push for Democratic programs that reflect what President Obama constantly calls "American Values". For most of our history, the call to live up to the better part of ourselves, was both American and Progressive. Those values are what made us Reagan's shining city on the hill ...not the policies he promoted. To that end, a group of activists, Accountability Now PAC, intends on targeting Congressional Democrats who don't support Progressive values with their votes. While this initiative runs the risk of generating counter-productive infighting and compromising the ability of Democrats to pass legislation in the near-term, it's about time that Democratic voters start to hold wishy-washy Democratic incumbents accountable.

As an unabashed Liberal, someone who believes that the foundation of the word "progressive" is progress, I'm hopeful. If we're smart and aggressive, real change might finally come. We are in for very tough times, no question. Many of my fellow citizens, including me and my family, are going to suffer in ways we hadn't anticipated and may not be prepared for. But if out of that suffering comes the change we need to ensure a better future for my grandchildren and children everywhere, then I'm prepared to sacrifice for the long haul.

That's why I will continue to look for hope amidst the rubble of our economy and communities. Our generation's legacy is on the line.

Dig It!

OK, I know ...it's been forever since I posted. Life has gotten away from me. The election, holidays, work ...you know how it is. But I'm home sick so it seemed like a good time to post something that I discovered on Facebook today. Yup, Facebook. I was badgered into getting a page there by one of my sons.

So, I'm checking out "Causes". The younger generation seems to have invented a way to proselytize one another about favorite charitable causes and other activist attention-grabbers. I found one that resonated and signed a petition, which I'd like you all to consider as well. This particular initiative is one that has been pushed by Michael Pollan and Alice Waters, two people I respect immensely.

Here it is: Eat The View!




The goal is to get President Obama to dedicate a portion of the White House grounds to growing an organic garden. It would feed the White House and any leftover produce would go to food pantries in the Washington, D.C. area. Seems that Eleanor Roosevelt insisted on a Victory Garden during WWII ...which became a model for all Americans. Given the current economy, people could certainly save money by growing some of their own food ...and they would likely be healthier as well.

So if you have the time and inclination, please sign the petition and push for this great idea. Spring is nearly here. Let's push for full employment for gardeners!

Going Green - A Path Out of Poverty

It's easy to see "going green" as an elitist initiative. If you are committed to reducing your carbon footprint you can probably afford CFLs, energy efficient appliances, organic food. If you're poor or a vulnerable middle class family a Prius is not in your future. Buying organic food? Seriously ...just buying food is a struggle. But what if 'going green' was a path out of poverty or into a more sustainable job?

A new initiative hopes to enlist the masses in our country's transition to sustainable living . Green for All has a simple but ambitious mission: to help build a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Here is how they describe themselves:

By advocating for a national commitment to job training, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in the emerging green economy – especially for people from disadvantaged communities -- we fight both poverty and pollution at the same time. We are committed to securing one billion dollars by 2012 to create “green pathways out of poverty” for 250,000 people in the United States, by greatly expanding federal government and private sector commitments to “green-collar” jobs.

Green collar. What a great idea!

However, before we get all enthusiastic, let's think about this: Blue collar is dying in this country, and with it, the middle class. Will the same thing happen to those with Green collars?

Union membership is shrinking, in large part because since Ronald Regean the Republican-dominated government and courts, have allowed service and retail industries like Wal-Mart to punish workers who attempt to unionize. The Clinton administration unknowingly accelerated the process by supporting free trade and globalization. As manufacturing jobs evaporated, so did unions. How can a union effectively advocate and negotiate for its members if 1) there are too few members to shut down business and 2) if they DO successfully negotiate better contracts, the corporation counters by exporting jobs to countries with cheap labor, no unions, and no environmental or health protections. The game today is rigged to fuel shinking unions and shrinking jobs and a shrinking standard of living.

Bottom line: we won't revitalize jobs if those jobs can be exported or can be done by low-wage non-unionized illegal immigrants. Unions need to be involved in the development of green industries from the ground up. As we train people to rebuild our infrastructure and green-up housing, we also need to organize them into effective bargaining units or they will be just another loosely employed group with low wages and few benefits (like the roofing industry, for example). The Culinary Workers in Las Vegas and the SEIU are two unions that have made a difference, whose aggressive organizing efforts among low wage workers have catapulted those workers into a more secure middle class life. I may disagree with their politics, but I support their overall objectives, like globalizing unions so that world-wide action can be taken against global corporations.

I know, I know. The unions have their own corruption, their disproportionately well-paid bosses, and a sense of entitlement that must be reconsidered. But with all their flaws, they had a substantial role in bringing the good life to our parents, who in turn, provided one for us. Our standard of living owes a great deal to the union movement.

So, while we support efforts to create green jobs, let's also support the renaissance of the good old-fashioned union label!

Fat and Malnourished

A contradiction? Nope. Increasingly, research on obesity reveals that the quality of our diet is poor, even if the amount we eat is huge. The result? Malnourished fat people. I see it every day in my clinic (and I’m sadly inching into that demographic myself, no pun intended).

When I read this great commentary on the economy today, it struck me that our country increasingly resembles its people: fat and malnourished.

“From 1980 to 2005 the national economy, adjusted for inflation, more than doubled. (Because of population growth, the actual increase per capita was about 66 percent.) But the average income for the vast majority of Americans actually declined during that period. The standard of living for the average family has improved not because incomes have grown, but because women have gone into the workplace in droves.”

So, the economy is ‘fat’ but our people are ‘starving’.

A malnourished country cannot thrive, though it may limp along with the dwindles for a long time. Like a human being, a poorly nourished society will be plagued by chronic conditions for which there are no easy fixes.

As a people, we face: Deteriorating infrastructure; declining wages; joblessness; inaccessible and unaffordable health care; environmental degradation; energy dependence; stressed families; and a tarnished international reputation. Our politicians, who recognize our dis-ease and fear, appeal to our emotions, our child-like desire for ‘hope’ or ‘change’ or ‘security’. They do not challenge us to retool our expectations and communal lifestyle. No one talks about hard work or sacrifice, especially in service of the greater good or future generations, like this country did during WWII. Yes, we need to expand jobs — that is critical, especially in infrastructure, green energy, and related industries — but that isn’t sufficient. Like the obese, we want a solution that asks little of us — let’s just eliminate carbs, get our lapband put in — and then go back to the way things were. I see people every day who lost weight after obesity surgery but 10 years later have gained it back. They didn’t change; they ‘hoped’ that the surgery would do the work for them.

I fear that we are getting the solutions and the politicians we want but not the ones we need. Yes, we need to inspire people to believe they can succeed in changing the country. But changing a country means changing US. The kind of change we need should exact a price from each of us. While I believe we should tax the hell out of the wealthy and corporations who send jobs elsewhere, even the middle class is going to have to sacrifice and change. We are going to have to be willing to live in smaller houses that are healthier, more sustainable — that put less burden on the environment. Drive smaller cars, walk, use public transportation. Learn to live and work in our neighborhood again rather than commute for hours to earn a wage that barely keeps us even with our debt. We can live well with limits if we reframe what living well means: improved well-being and peace-of-mind, close-knit families, jobs that satisfy us, high-quality food eaten with those we love, more time for caring for one another and the community.

This is no time for magical or wishful thinking. We must be clear-eyed and rational. We must ‘think local’ — at the level of ourselves as individuals — as well as globally — setting expectations for business and government. Too often I hear people say that small changes made by individuals are irrelevant, that government must change. How ‘bout both being true? When other people see me carrying my own bags, they comment. I give a little spiel about why it is important. Now some of those people are carrying their own bags and hopefully, giving their own little spiel. Increasingly, we ‘bag ladies’ are asking businesses and institutions to support our efforts by making new rules about bags. And so it goes. But we can’t ask government or corporations to be the only ones accountable for our societal health.

We need to vote for change, meaningful change, and expect to change ourselves as well. It won’t be easy, because we will need to do things most of us have never done before, like finding happiness while making a smaller personal footprint on our earth. Regardless of the outcome of the next election, let’s hope that we can ask our politicians to make some hard choices that will demand hard choices from us too, not just sacrifice from ‘other people’.