Across the Great Divide

Shelter Report: Getting on the Same Page.

We were reading a book about food and drink. Kadija, let's call her, was pointing to pictures on each page and asking me which item I liked best.

Watermelon, I said.

Spaghetti.

Chocolate-covered toffee.

Coffee.

That's not coffee, she said of the scoop taken out of a rich brown pile of ground coffee beans. That's dirt.

And sure enough, when I looked at it from her perspective, it could have been dirt.

I had a rotating cast of three to four kids bringing me books to read, scrambling for room on a small love seat and my lap. We did a train book, a book on colors, one showing how a house was built and one about dinosaurs, of course.

In that sort of picture book context, I'm not often reading so much as guiding them through the book, letting them turn the pages and focus on what interests them. They set the pace. They remark and ask questions. I use their own attention to lead them to learn something new.

Sometimes they make up their own story using the book as inspiration. It's a sort of preschool fanfiction.

Today, Kadija wanted to "read" a book to me. I picked out a book about a cat who keeps inviting a mouse to play while the mouse keeps coming up with excuses to stay in his hole. She'd obviously had the book read to her before, because each time the mouse's refrain to the cat appeared, she repeated it. As for the rest of the story, she told it loosely, riffing on the pictures.

After reading it to me twice, she picked up a book adaptation of A Bug's Life and launched into a far more detailed and emphatic account. I'm not sure how closely it followed the original story about ants in conflict with grasshoppers because it was hard to hear in the general chatter of the room. (Maybe it's time to get my hearing checked.) But thanks to her rendition, for the first time I've become aware that ladybugs are boys as well as girls.

*****

Because he's lactose-intolerant, Dion can't drink milk so he gets water with his snack. Today, I'd give him the cup and he'd push it back. He also refused his orange wedge.

I squeezed the orange slice into the cup. Here, I said, orange juice.

He downed the water and asked for more.

A class of 17 preschoolers in constant flux between refusal and acceptance. One of my jobs is to find that little twist or distraction that brings  a kid from tears to laughter, from fighting to peace, from wanting to go home to wanting to be in school.

When there's a disagreement over the agenda, the adults eventually win. We're bigger and stronger with more smarts, resources and authority than the kids in the class.

If I were a country, I'd be America and they'd be Venezuela, Greece, Libya and Uzbekistan. But if I were a president, I'd be careful about how I exerted my superior power.

Why shouldn't I just order more ships and rattle more bayonets?

Because it's possible to be an adult without being a tyrant. Because these kids are already up against superior power and coercion. Because they learn better when they're hooked into something they already know or want to know.

Because some day they will be running the world, and I won't be, and they already know how to fight.

Self-serving or Serving People: My Dinner with Teachers.

A dinner party last night got me thinking about the interface between political rhetoric and where people's hearts really are. Of the seven gathered at the table, two were former teachers, one taught seventh grade and a fourth worked in a high school and was also involved in its drama productions.

Despite the depths of Colorado's educational funding problems and the precariousness of teaching jobs — seen in increasingly challenging classrooms, threats of layoffs and the red tide against "public employees — the table talk didn't go there.

Instead, it focused on the kids: The hard-working ones, the medicated ADHD kids, the malingerers, the amazing ones, the autistic one, the singers and dancers and shot putters and drug users. And it was spoken with an  awareness of and concern for their nutrition, upbringing, social circles, inspirations and prospects.

An ex-teacher inquired about one of his former students and whether he'd stayed out of trouble in high school. The math teacher, who taught a "gifted" class in addition to classes for kids with behavioral problems, said her gifted group was largely made of kids who might have been considered normal a generation or two ago. She also expressed mild regret that she'd passed on an opening to teach science (her specialty) because she believed science positions would be the next ones to be cut.

That's as political as it got last night.

This morning, back in the realm of daily news and conflict, I wondered how the conversation at a table of political job holders might go — say, appointees who rode the coattails of November's victory and are now intent on shaving government down to size as they collect nice paychecks and enjoy benefits just like other public employees. Would their undirected talk focus on the people they serve — all of them — or toward the advance of power and the progress of their unmaking government?

I don't know for sure, but this framework comes to mind as way to imagine it.

Let's say we can derive satisfaction from four dimensions of work: the work itself, the people we serve, the compensation we receive, and the control we can achieve. All are forms of reward, and the greatest theoretical reward comes from achieving satisfaction in all four dimensions. In reality, there are variations, overlaps and exceptions, but let's keep this simple.

Those who enjoy the work itself can include writers, programmers, scientists, athletes, artists, entrepreneurs and others who don't necessarily require other people to enrich what is already a rich interior experience. The work can be primarily mental or physical; it's the activity itself that gives pleasure.

Others may primarily derive satisfaction from serving others. Let's include teachers, ministers, health professionals, restauranteurs, certain salespeople and various social service professionals.

Then there are the managers and financial types who could be equally at home in banking, consumer electronics, taco franchising, insurance or the cake mix business. They need other people, but primarily as abstractions — "human resources," "consumers" and "shareholders" — necessary to the system that provides their financial gain.

The fourth dimension certainly overlaps with the others, but the control sought by a composer or a farmer is very different from that sought by the political and business classes, which must exert power over others to achieve their goals. And one of the levers of their power comes from characterizing and mischaracterizing others.

Of course, people aren't this simple, but these categories provide a framework for seeing through motivations as well as self-deceptions.

After all, there's more than one way to serve people.

 

 

 

 

 

Colorado GOP Candidate Needs Help. Paging Robert Erickson.

While Minnesota's GOP nominee for governor Tom Emmer is thanking Robert Erickson today for changing the subject at a disastrous town hall meeting with restaurant servers, Colorado's nominee Scott McInnis is trying to get Erickson's number.

McInnis needs a squirrel, any squirrel.

The McInnis campaign is reeling after a series of reports that opinion pieces and a series of "Musings on Water" essays, for which he was paid $300,000 contained plagiarized material. The editorial board of the  Denver Post, which reported the original stories, has called for him to withdraw from the race — and in an unlikely convergence, talk radio righties agree.

McInnis used to represent Colorado in Congress, from the same district that produced the fictional "The West Wing" representative and eventual vice president Bingo Bob Russell. I've never known for sure whether that was a coincidence.

Politicians have overcome plagiarism claims before. (See the current, real VP.) But prolix politicians lifting passages for speeches is a lower-order offense than taking pay — big pay, all you out-of-work journalists will note — to recycle material for a think tank.

As a fellow of the Hasan Family Foundation, McInnis was paid $150,000 a year over two years to do speaking engagements and "research and write a monthly article on water issues that can be distributed to media and organizations as well as be available on the Internet."

At 13 grand a pop, you'd think he might pay closer attention to the content of his "original work."

McInnis's response to the flap hasn't helped him one bit.

Hey, Robert Erickson, they have an immigration debate in Colorado, too, and Tom Tancredo is old news.

Back for Second Looks.

Before I left Colorado this weekend, I talked with a nonprofit leader who recounted to me the various charitable enterprises that were hurting in the valley — in part because of lost state funds and because donors had been made more cautious by the state of the economy.

Examples ranged from closure of a unit that cared for severely disabled adults to arts, conservation and other groups that support various aspects of quality of life. We talked about how churches might support a program to feed hungry families, except they, too, are straining to pay for buildings and pastors' salaries.

And we talked about her daughter's school, where two classrooms of kids taking an advanced placement course had the same teacher but different textbooks, because the school could only afford new books for half the students.

Mesa County is a conservative place that in recent elections has defeated a school bonding proposal, funding for a new public safety building and a new county library. It's in places like this — not in more liberal Minnesota — where the doctrine of low taxes and leave us alone to take care of ourselves will first be tested.

Will new or renewed voluntary organizations step up where government is stepping back?

So far, it's not looking good.

*****

Stricter oil and gas rules approved by outgoing Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter were supposed to wreck western Colorado's booming economy as companies pulled out for blacker pastures. Ritter's likely opponent and energy development lobbyist Scott McGinnis had been hammering the theme all year.

Well, now McGinnis will face a charismatic and effective Denver mayor, John Hickenlooper, and his bogus claim about the impact of environmental and health protections has been shown up by the facts.

Colorado was the top issuer of drilling permits and wells drilled, compared to its neighbors, including Wyoming, the Heidi Fleiss of energy states.

And McGinnis is the one feeling screwed.

*****

Over a year ago, I wrote about a Ferrari-driving local fellow who shot up the front door of his golf club. At the time, I suggested there was more to the story than a rich drunk having a temper tantrum.

A story about his plea this week fills out some important details about his depression and chemical dependency.

"When you're out of your mind, the worst thing is you don't know you're out of your mind."

In the weeks before the shooting, Rice said, friends tried to get him into a hospital for help but were unsuccessful. "It's almost like you have to do something bad, but then it's too late," he said of his friends' efforts to get him treatment.

[...]

Rice said he will send the club an apology through [his attorney]. "The way to say you're sorry is to live a better life," he said.

Returning Tiger's Shirt.

I heard this conversation second-hand:

An early-shopping mother had bought a Sunday red Tiger Woods branded shirt as a Christmas present for her adult son. She was talking with a group of women about whether she should take it back to the store and exchange it for another brand.

One suggestion: It's his gift, let him take it back if he wants.

Mother: Well... I'd feel good if he did that, but what if he doesn't? Then I'd be annoyed whenever I saw him wear it.

Another said: It's your shirt until you give it to him. If it makes you feel icky, return it. He'll never know.

Mother: I'll take it back this afternoon.

That's the abridged version. No one really questioned why the mom would feel that way or that her desire to dump the shirt was at all off base.

Let me speculate here that a men's discussion might go differently, with the least noxious statement being to the effect that it's just a shirt. 

This discussion more or less confirms my hunch.

Lin says:

I, for one, have changed my buying pattern and no longer will purchase Nike, Gatorade or any Pepsi products, Gillette is a goner, AT&T will never be my cell phone carrier and I no longer use my AmEx credit card. [...]

And Jason responds:

give me a break, you expect us to believe that you will not purchase nike, pepsi, gillette, at&t, or amex products – this is a crock, and any educated consumer will base their purchase decisions on product quality and perceived value, not sponsorship

Kurt also rationalizes:

First of all, the sponsor companies did not know about Tiger’s actions until after the fact. This is why you are seeing and will continue to see certain sponsors drop Tiger. So you can’t really blame the consumer companies. They did what they thought to be best at the time of acquiring him as a spokesperson.

The sponsored athlete does not make the products good, the producing company does. The athlete is merely a marketing strategy.

Like Jason said, if you are dumb enough to buy or drop products solely because of the associated athlete, then you are NOT a smart, educated consumer.

These guys totally miss the fact that they are paying extra for the "perceived value" of a $75 to $100 TW shirt. They are ignoring their own response to the emotional dimension of brands, as well as the fact that women consumers may view Tiger's behavior differently than they do.

Bill has a more nuanced take:

I see Nike & Woods as actually four brands: 1) the Tiger Woods garments with his TW logo. These sales will suffer. 2) Nike golf clubs which had a poor image until Tiger won with them. These too may suffer, somewhat. 3) Nike golf clothing. Not a factor. You’re not going to switch to inferior fabrics/styles at Adidas etc. to avoid the swoosh. 4) Other Nike sporting goods. Not a factor. But back to #1 and 2…Nike has to think twice about its ads showing Tiger in a “heroic” follow-thru pose.

Given that a lot of menswear is purchased by women, Nike has to be concerned about the likelihood that its Tiger line of clothing is going to take a hit. For how long remains to be seen, but the value of his endorsement has to have plummeted.

And if sales do drop, it's certainly not a matter of women not being "smart, educated consumers."

Weekend'S nooze.

Two NWA pilots ignored radio transmissions for more than an hour, overshot their airport by 150 miles, and the first officer on the flight says, "I can assure you none of us was asleep,"

"Honey, it's not what you think," says the husband pulling on his pants while the sister-in-law pulls the covers over her head.

*****

Okay, maybe it's true Albert Einstein, Mozart and Shakespeare didn't watch "educational videos" when they were kids. But now they're saying "Baby Einstein" videos didn't turn kids into geniuses? How can that be, when rap CDs have turned so many white boys into gangstas?

Next thing you know, they'll be telling us fizzy sugar water is unhealthy and Wonder bread doesn't build strong bodies 13 ways.

Oh, they have?

*****

Gov. Pawlenty has again seized the reins of state government, ordering the sex offender program his administration runs to transfer new flat screen TVs to veteran's homes. (They can still enjoy suggestive televised imagery in the privacy of their rooms.)

The costs of a few TVs pales in comparison to the cost growth from Pawlenty's campaign to lock up more sex offenders, and to keep them locked up after they have served their sentences. For example, more than a third of the emergency funding in the governor's 2006 supplemental budget recommendations went "to fund sex offender commitment growth." And it continues, as we continue to hold people because of their potential to commit crimes.

*****

Meanwhile, Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat wants to know why homeless and chronic drinkers are getting free $60 Vikings tickets. To a Twins fan, $60 tickets sound steep, but a quick look at the Mall of America (!) Stadium map shows that they'll put you in the end zone upper deck.

Putting chronic drinkers in seats next to binge drinkers may work as aversion therapy, as long as the tickets are for early season games. I'd advise against playoff tickets, however. The chances of relapse on the field might trigger similar behavior in the seats.

*****

For wonks only: Are national polls indicating voter preferences stacked against Republicans? Or is GOP party identification in decline? You could just ask Sarah Palin.

*****

Adrian Monck (with h/t to Hal Davis) extracts this gem from a Harvard Business School working paper:

"Another possibility for decreasing such behavior [justifying and rationalizing questionable preferences] is to make people accountable for their decisions, requiring them to explain the reasons underlying their choices (Lerner & Tetlock, 1999). Given people’s demonstrated desire to seek out acceptable justifications for questionable preferences, however, accountability pressures may simply motivate people to look even harder for justifications, rather than stop them from behaving poorly. In fact, in some situations accountability can enhance bias, as with its amplifying effect on commitment to decisions (Simonson & Staw, 1992). Indeed, when Norton et al. (2004) made participants accountable for their decisions in choosing between a Black and White high school student for admission to college, not only did requiring participants to explain themselves fail to decrease preferences based on racial bias, it made them look even more carefully through the resumes to find additional evidence in favor of their questionable decisions. "

Looking Without Seeing.

Jan. 5, 2009: ''There is a woman there that gives me a certain look every time I am there."

– George Sodini

His home tour video makes me sad.

How Should Baseball Honor the Fourth?

The Twins beat the Tigers today wearing caps that honored the five U.S. military services. We will now proceed to a new paragraph to make one thing very clear.

I am all in favor of professional sports teams honoring the armed services, active military and veterans.

And baseball, especially, should do all it can to remain America's game and retain its anti-trust exemption.

Veterans Day falls too late for a baseball observance. But the entire month of May was National Military Appreciation Month, followed by Flag Day on June 14th.

So why now, should Independence Day weekend be devoted to armed services appreciation?

Shouldn't the country's birthday honor more than the military? Perhaps the Twins promotion department could show some imagination next year and include caps for: Peace Corps. Americorps. ACLU. NAACP. Federalist Society. Or maybe: Washington. Lincoln. Parks. King. Norquist.

But if they insist it has to be a military promo, how about: Jobs. Education. Housing. Mental Health. Peace.

They'd have the entire month of May to build up to it.

If Texas Seceded...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is only posturing about secession, but Texas Congressman Ron Paul says secession is as American as shooting your quail hunting buddy in the face.

I can think of a few reasons why leaving the union might not be all that peachy for Texas.

• Texas will have to get over its obsession with size once and for all and accept that it ranks between Zambia and Myanmar.
• "Lone Star Nation" doesn't have the same ring.
• Six Flags Over Texas would have to rebrand.
• We'd see how well Texas gets along without an income tax once it has to provision an Army, monitor borders, deliver mail, etc.
• At least we'd be done with that Dallas Cowboys are America's Team nonsense.

And there are some unanswered questions, too.

• What will Palin do in 2012 if there's no Texas?
• Will Texas need an extradition treaty with Oklahoma to bring back runaway legislators?
• Will the U.S. be allowed to keep its bases there?
• Will Texas want the bomb?
• Will the official currency remain the dollar, or will Texas adopt the .22, .38, .45, and .50 API standard?
• Will South by Southwest move to Santa Fe?
• Would Alberto Gonzales seek asylum, and would President Delay grant it?

Who Deserves Help When Disaster Strikes?

With the Red River still yet to crest, the Strib commenters rush in. One theme is that some people "deserve" help and others don't.

No need to guess who's who. The comments start off with this exchange [click link above for full comment]:

People should be able to live where they want and be responsible for where they live as long as they don't look to the Feds for help. If the North Dakota government wants to provide assistance for their own people for the choices they have made, so bet [sic] it.

posted by nomeds on Mar. 27, 09 at 7:48 AM

[...] At least the people along the Red River use the fed money to fortify their flood defenses. New Orleans used the fed money to build river boat gambling operations and yacht slips. Also, there will be no blame of Obama for the flooding along the Red like Bush was blamed for Katrina. The people along the Red are fighting the disaster to save their cities. The people of New Orleans used the Katrina disaster to riot, loot, rape and murder. If anyone deserves federal aid, it's the people along the Red - they've earned the right to get help.

posted by pdempsey on Mar. 27, 09 at 8:00 AM

There's a morality play in pdempsey's version of the two floods. New Orleans spent money on playtime for the rich, while the 9th Ward poor rioted; the good people of the Red River Valley suited up and stacked sand bags. The subtext of race and class is inescapable.

I won't try to untangle everything in that comparison — including his statements about crime that even Michelle Malkin says are false — but... there's a significant difference between:

• self-organizing defense against a rising river on the edge of farm country — and doing it in a poor urban community in the face of a Category 4 hurricane where the ocean meets the largest river in America.
• driving to safety where your neighbors look like you do — and having your escape on foot blocked by suburban police who don't want you to enter.
• being able to reach a functioning store when you need food and water — and being caught where aid isn't coming, stores are abandoned and remaining law enforcement is busy protecting the casinos.
• living middle class in a well-run state — and living poor in a corrupt state.

Last week, I saw Trouble the Water, a documentary of Katrina's arrival in New Orleans and the aftermath. It challenges assumptions about people in the 9th Ward, by providing depth and texture that simply can't be conveyed through a TV news camera.

One moment that stuck with me. A well-meaning National Guardsman from Oregon reclining with his unit outside an abandoned school building tells the camera,  "No offense to civilian people, but they have no idea how to survive."

On one level, he may have a point. But he's saying it in front of people we have watched surviving without the backing of the government, without guns and vehicles, without any of the resources that keep him comfortable and them barred from an empty, decommissioned military base inside the city.

No offense to military people, but their training on how to survive relates to a different set of problems.

From relative comfort, it's easy to spot the unworthy. Out here in Colorado, we see stories about people who head into the back country without sufficient preparation and think they are idiots when they require rescue. We insured non-smokers have trouble mustering sympathy for uninsured smokers who face the high costs of cancer treatment. Secure in our homes, we herd those who face foreclosure into the not-okay corral.

This is natural. Our "tribe" gets smaller under scarcity and stress. Some people stock up on ammo, but just about everyone will start mentally counting the cans on the shelf, the gallons in the tank and the dollars under the mattress.

From the distant sidelines of the Red River flood, it's worth reflecting: Will America have to decide who has "earned the right" to get help? And how would we know?