SOME PERSONAL REFLECTION ON "HILLBILLY ELEGY" BY J.D. VANCE

HILLBILLY ELEGY:  A MEMOIR OF A FAMILY IN CULTURE AND CRISIS BY J.D. VANCE

I just finished reading this book.  I found it spellbinding for many reasons but above all, because of the ringing affirmation of how lucky I’ve been in my life because of the experiences and individuals who have helped me “overcome” (and that is the word) the challenges of my own youth.

Before turning to the poignant personal reflections this book brought me, first a comment on the challenge Vance described in transitioning from the environment he had experienced as a “hillbilly” (per his description) in Middletown, OH and moving to the environment of Ohio State University and Yale Law School. 

What he described, I believe, reflects the challenge that many African-Americans and other minorities face as they enter corporate America and other environments like it.  It is the challenge of being comfortable socially, of being secure and comfortable in one's own view of who he or she is. 

Vance writes, “We do know the working class Americans aren’t just less likely to climb the economic ladder, they are also more likely to fall off even after they have reached the top.  I imagine that the discomfort they feel leaving behind much of their identity plays at least a small role in this problem.  One way our upper class can promote upward mobility, is not only by pushing wise public policies but by opening (our) hearts and minds to the newcomers who don’t quite belong.”

“Though we sing the praises of social mobility, it has it downsides.  The term necessarily implies a sort of movement—to a theoretically better life, yes, but also away from something.  And you can’t always control the parts of your own life from which you drift.”

Vance describes himself as a “cultural alien.”  He points to this even if implicitly as a reason why so few people from his high school in Middletown made it to the Ivy League and why so few people like him are represented in America’s leading institutions. 

We need to help everyone feel respected and accepted for who they are--to feel "in the house".

It is on the more personal side, as it relates to my own life, that the story this book tells becomes truly trenchant.  Like J.D. Vance, when I look back, I am humbled, grateful and, indeed, dumbfounded at how many contingent events and individual people had to fall in place for me to have the life that I have had. 

In every chapter of my life, and in virtually every environment I’ve been in, I have found family and mentors and friends who supported, believed in and enabled me.

The love and ever-present confident expectations of my mother.  The nuns who instilled the discipline of learning and ultimately the love of a good deal of it, too.  The commitment of my family to the Catholic Church, with the burdens it brought but, far more important, the belief in God and Jesus, the conviction that there was a “right thing” to do.  My parents’ decision to send me to Portsmouth Priory, having the experience there of the intellect and faith of men like Father Dom Andrew Jenks and his high expectations of me.  

Passing the eye test in Boston which gave me the Naval scholarship I needed to go to Yale.  My meeting my first history teacher, Howard Roberts Lamar.  My time in the Navy.  The decision to apply to Procter & Gamble because of of the glint in the eye as the Yale recruiter who had explained what a job in Brand Management was all about five years earlier.  The people who believed in me—Jack Clagett, Ed Artzt, John Smale and so many others at Procter & Gamble; my assistants who took care of me; friends like Chuck Hain, Tom Shoop, Dick Adams, and John Simpkinson and his wife Janet, who cared for me, who helped me believe in myself, often more than I did.  The chance meeting on May 2, 1964 with Francie who changed and made my life what it became.   

Years ago, I took no more than two hours to write down on a piece of paper the people who changed my life, without whom I wouldn’t have been there writing that paper.  I titled it, “If It Weren’t For Them.”  I won’t go through the list; I don’t think I have to.  The title says it all.  The difference we make to one another by how we act, by how we make them feel, by the confidence and trust we express in them, and the affection we show for them as well.  That’s what life at its best is all about.  It’s the greatest gift we can give to another, starting with those closest to us, our family.

*****

There is one other very poignant comment Vance makes which I am compelled to recognize.  Vance acknowledges that he didn’t lose contact with his parents because he didn’t care; he lost contact with them in order to survive.  “We never stop loving, and we never lose hope that our loved ones will change.  Rather, we were forced, either by wisdom or by the law, to take the path of self-preservation.”  

I wouldn’t say it exactly that way.  The “law” had nothing to do with my pursuit of "self-preservation". And I never lost contact with my family.  But the commitment to "survive"did limit the amount of contact I had with my parents.  Not only my “personal survival", but the "survival" of my family.

Of course, and this is a tribute to them, I knew my parents would have it no other way.  There was no greater expression of their love for me, no act so unselfish, than their desire for whatever was best for my and my family’s life.

NEVER BETRAYING THE VALUES WE HOLD MOST DEAR

EDWARD R. MURROW ON THE HEROIC  EXAMPLE OF BRITAIN IN WORLD WAR II: THEY NEVER BETRAYED THEIR VALUES 

 

 

The inspiring book, “This I Believe: The Living Philosophies of 100 Thoughtful Men and Women in All Walks of Life" includes a Forward by the renowned newsman, Edward R. Murrow, who reported from London during World War II. 

 

 Murrow takes us back to the autumn of 1940, “when Britain stood alone”, and yet, as Murrow said:

 

“At a time when most men save Englishmen despaired of England’s life, there was a steadiness, confidence, and determination that must have been based on something other than a lack of imagination.  As the months wore on, and the nights lengthened, and the casualty list mounted, I became more concerned to try to understand what sustained these people: what belief or what methodology caused them to stand so steady in their shoes.  In part, it was ignorance of their own weakness; in part, it was a reluctance to appear obvious by expressing doubt as to the ultimate outcome.  But at bottom, this calm confidence stemmed from the belief that what they were defending was good; that Englishmen had devised a system of regulating the relationship between the individual and the state which was superior to all others, and which would survive even though cold military calculations concluded that the state was doomed.

 

There was little logic in this British belief.  Unconsciously, they dug deep into the history and felt that Drake, Raleigh, Hawkins and Cromwell and all the rest were looking down at them, and they were obliged to appear worthy in the eyes of their ancestors.  But above everything else, they believed.  They believed in not only themselves, but that they were fighting against evil things and the fight was worthwhile.

 

No democracy has been nearer the fire and survived than was Britain in that long winter and one reason for survival was that the nation did not betray the things in which it believed.

 

At a time when German bombers were coming through in the daylight over London, when the Germans were expected on the beaches the first foggy morning, the House of Commons, which might have been destroyed with all its members by one well-placed enemy bomb, devoted two days to discussing the conditions under which enemy aliens were being held on the Isle of Man.  For the House of Commons was determined that, though the island fell, there would be nothing resembling concentration camps in Britain, and the rights under law of enemy aliens could not be abused.  That is what the British collectively believed."

 

 

No man can measure or transmit the degree of detail of another man’s belief.  But it is possible on occasion to report it.  Murrow continued: "The night after the Munich Agreement was signed, I (Murrow) sat with Jan Masaryk, the Czechoslovak Ambassador in his London Embassy.  It was the anniversary of his father’s death.  We finished a broadcast to America at 4:00 am; we both thought that the Munich Agreement meant that war was inevitable.  But Jan believed, someway, that the forces of evil would be defeated.  Speaking of Hitler and Mussolini, he said: ‘I assure you, God will not let two such heathens control Europe.’  His belief, at that time, was greater than my own.”

 

 

* * * * * * * * * * *

 

 

I recall this story in order to display the ideals which kept Britain alive during the dark days in the early years of World War II and which are needed to keep all of us going at times of challenge. The scene Murrow describes in 1940 bears a striking resemblance to the risk and the challenge, that was faced by the young United States of America, in 1776, when having lost virtually every battle in the Revolutionary War, Washington pulled a group of ragged men together to cross the Delaware River on a blustery, sleeting Christmas night, to go on to win battles in Wilmington and Princeton, that would turn the tides of the War.  No one at that moment would have bet on the success of Washington and his Army, but they were committed to noble ideas, just as England was in 1940.

 

We face our own challenges today, here in the United States and around the world. We must face them in the same way Murrow describes: holding fast to our deepest values. 

 

It timely to recall Murrow’s words: “No democracy has been nearer the fire and survived than was Britain in that long winter (of 1940) and one reason for survival was that the nation did not betray the things in which it believed. “

 

 

 

 

 

THE REFUGEE CRISIS--WHAT DOES CHRISTIANITY DEMAND- REPOSTING FROM 11/17/2015

THE REFUGEE CRISIS--WHAT DOES CHRISTIANITY DEMAND

NOVEMBER 17, 2015

 The Refugee Crisis--What Does Christianity Demand? 

I am wrestling with this question, challenge, dilemma--call it what you will. It is a classic dilemma: trying to reconcile two "goods". Here are my thoughts. I am praying that our world leaders will reach the right conclusions. 

We know what the bible says. We know if the mantra, "Everyone Counts", means anything we in the United States need to play a leading role helping those women and men fleeing to save their lives and their children's lives from persecution. 

At the same time, governments owe their citizens and their families a safe environment. Governments should not take action which they believe introduce risk of murder of their citizens of the kind that took place in Paris last week. That means as we accept people into our country or any country we should be as sure as humanly possible through our vetting process that they will not do harm. In fact, the vetting process already in place, is extremely rigorous, especially for refugees from Syria. The average clearance time is 18-24 months. As many as 10 U.S Agencies are involved before the refugee is cleared to come to the U.S.

So what concretely do I believe is required of the U.S. and other nations:

1. All nations (West, Arab, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Syria, etc.) under the auspices of the United Nations or other broad based coalition must work together to achieve: a) a cease fire and then political settlement in Syria which will bring a halt to the Civil War and b) marshal the forces to eliminate the ISIS plague and the threat it represents to the civilized world. This is also essential to stop the outward flow of refugees  and enable those who have already left to safely return. We must set aside past grievances, real or manufactured, to do these two things. Specifically, we must work with Russia and, yes, Iran to that end. The discussions in Vienna are encouraging. We must use our leverage to demand participation by Saudi and other Arab nations. 

2. These same nations under the auspices of the United Nations or other broad coalition should create a plan to: 

a) support (and I mean really support) the refugees who have already left their home to locate in a safe location as close as possible to Syria until they can return to their home. This will probably require establishment of "safe zones" protected by joint forces including NATO, Russia, Turkey, Iran and others nations. It will be necessary to give much more financial support to the countries neighboring Syria (e.g. Jordan) to make this possible.  Following the achievement of a political settlement we will need a Marshall Plan like effort to rebuild the infrastructure of Syria to permit a return to viable life. Doing this has to be predicated on a political settlement and the elimination of the ISIS plague. It will require a massive investment far beyond what has been done to date; 

b) continue to draw on the best intelligence and security experts in the world to ensure that the Syrians who have already sought or are seeking asylum in other countries can be "vetted"  to assure they do not pose a threat to the local populations. As I wrote above, my reading indicates that the vetting process for our country is already extremely rigorous and steps will continue to be taken to make it stronger. We will never achieve "zero risk" on this anymore than we can achieve that with our own indigenous population but we have to provide convincing assurance that the risk is minimal. We have to recognize that this will delay and probably limit the number of immigrants who can be accepted. But we should not lead this to turn our back on playing the role we should in aiding those most threatened. We turned our backs before as sadly described in the article below. Let's not have it happen again on our  watch. 

Stepping back we should recognize and ACT on this as the greatest global crisis since WWII other than perhaps the threat of nuclear annihilation . If there ever was a reason for the United Nations or the G-20 to exist this is it. If there ever was a reason for the nations of the world to unite this is it. 

No one should be using this crisis to try to gain political advantage, for example in the U.S. Presidential campaign or anywhere else.

People should get the facts on the refugee clearance process before shooting from the hip and calling for a ban on immigration.

Let us act on the best evidence of what we know to be true in protecting lives--all lives. 

ope’s fear of Muslim refugees echoes rhetoric of 1930s anti-Semitism

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By Ishaan Tharoor September 2  

A migrant shouts next to Macedonian policemen as she waits to cross the borders from northern Greece to southern Macedonia, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

A humanitarian crisis of historic proportions has been growing in Europe, as hundreds of thousands of refugees and economic migrants from the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia have crossed the continent's borders this year alone.

The scale of the influx is now well-documented. According to the European Union's border agency, some 340,000 migrants crossed its borders in first seven months of 2015; in July, the figure was on its own an astonishing 107,500 people. The majority of those making the hazardous crossing across the eastern Mediterranean are Syrian refugees, displaced by a horrifying, grinding civil war that has forced roughly half of the country's population out of their homes.

According to U.N. figures, the current global levels of displacement have not been matched since World War II. In 2014, the number of refugees, asylum-seekers and people forced to flee within their country surged to nearly 60 million people.

[Britain takes in so few refugees they could fit on a subway train.]

It's hard to grasp the scope of this in real terms -- a nation of the displaced -- but it's been hideously dramatized in recent news. Desperate refugees and migrants, at the mercy of smugglers and human traffickers, have been confronted by walls and soldiers, have drowned in the Mediterranean, and suffocated in the back of trucks.

Over the past year, many in Europe have bristled at the influx -- from far-right political movements and fear-mongering tabloids to established politicians and leaders. The resentment has to do, in part, with the burden of coping with the refugees. But it's also activated a good amount of latent xenophobia--leading to anti-Islam protests, attacks on asylum centers and a good deal of bigoted bluster.

Some governments in Eastern Europe have even specifically indicated they don't want to accommodate non-Christian refugees, out of supposed fear over the ability of Muslims to integrate into Western society.

"Refugees are fleeing fear," urged a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency last week. "Refugees are not to be feared."

It's important to recognize that this is hardly the first time the West has warily eyed masses of refugees. And while some characterize Muslim arrivals as a supposedly unique threat, the xenophobia of the present carries direct echoes of a very different moment: The years before World War II, when tens of thousands of German Jews were compelled to flee Nazi Germany.

Consider this 1938 article in the Daily Mail, a British tabloid still known for its bouts of right-wing populism. Its headline warned of "German Jews Pouring Into This Country." And it began as follows:

"The way stateless Jews and Germans are pouring in from every port of this country is becoming an outrage. I intend to enforce the law to the fullest."

In these words, Mr Herbert Metcalde, the Old Street Magistrate yesterday referred to the number of aliens entering this country through the 'back door' -- a problem to which The Daily Mail has repeatedly pointed.

The number of aliens entering this country can be seen by the number of prosecutions in recent months. It is very difficult for the alien to escape the increasing vigilance of the police and port authorities.

Even if aliens manage to break through the defences, it is not long before they are caught and deported.

No matter the alarming rhetoric of Hitler's fascist state -- and the growing acts of violence against Jews and others -- popular sentiment in Western Europe and the United States was largely indifferent to the plight of German Jews.

"Of all the groups in the 20th century," write the authors of the 1999 book, "Refugees in the Age of Genocide," "refugees from Nazism are now widely and popularly perceived as 'genuine', but at the time German, Austrian and Czechoslovakian Jews were treated with ambivalence and outright hostility as well as sympathy."

Part of that hostility was fueled, as some of the European grievances are now, by stereotypes of the refugees as harbingers of a dangerous ideology, in this instance communism and anarchist violence.

There were also economic concerns. The world was coming off the Great Depression. In France alone, there were a million people unemployed. Resentment against French and foreign Jews (large numbers from Germany and Romania had arrived by the early 1930s) led to "a new wave of antisemitism," detailed by a report put out by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The Chamber of Commerce of the city of Metz, for example, grumbled in 1933 that "highly undesirable" Jews "have become a veritable plague for honest French merchants." By 1935, the then French government enacted a series of quotas on certain professions -- effectively blocking Jews out. This was a precursor for the more pernicious and deadly forms of antisemitism to come.

In Britain, as a 2002 article in the Guardian recounts, perhaps as many as half a million German Jewish asylum seekers were turned away by authorities ahead of the outbreak of World War II. Many who were admitted in were given asylum less out of altruism than a need to fill low-paying domestic work "spurned by the native British." The situation was no better elsewhere:

Canada accommodated only 5,000 European Jews between 1933 and 1945, Australia 10,000, South Africa some 6,000. And the US's unyielding quota system meant that, between 1933 and 1937, only 33,000 German Jews were admitted (and only 124,000 between 1938 and 1941).

Meanwhile, those trapped within Nazi-controlled Europe faced the horrors of the Holocaust. Millions were systematically killed. Yet it was only in 1944, when the extent of the genocide had become better known, that the United States made a real effort to rescue European Jews. Even during World War II, let alone before it started, antisemitism was rife in American political and public life.

Unwanted foreigners have always caused consternation among a section of any society. Thankfully, there's an equally vociferous chorus in Europe currently championing the plight of Syrian refugees, and urging others to help make a new home for those displaced by conflict and other hardships.

Everyone deserves the chance to live a better life, activists argue.

MY 3 YEAR-OLD GRANDSON ON DONAD TRUMP

Background:

Jonathan, my son-in-law  and Susie, my daughter and their two children, Hubbard, age 3  and Rhoda, age 2, live in the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina.

Jonathan is listening to NPR as he drives Hubbard to school each day.  Jonathan has no idea that Hubbard is listening to the radio. 

NPR like everyone else has virtual non-stop coverage of Trump.

Here is the unprompted conversation  with Hubbard over the pst couple days which Jonathan just shared with me. 

*********************************************

Hubbard reacting to hearing conversation yesterday

"I wouldn't want to go see Donald Trump".

Today after an NPR story about immigration, Hubbard:

"I'm tired of hearing about Donald Trump. That man (announcer) is talking to Donald Trump  (to tell him) to be nice. 

Probably he will direct him".

"I don't think Donald Trump will come here. Probably we have nice presidents in the mountains". 

Jonathan tells us that he has not been discussing this with Hubbard other than the other day responding to his comment saying briefly that Trump isn't nice to people.

************************************

This captures one of my deepest worries about the Trump presidency. The example he sets. The way young people pick things up.  

Yet, this little piece of dialogue shows what is possible and necessary. How values and responsibility align for parents and all of us to affirm in teaching moments what is good and right.

And if affirms the natural goodness of children.

TRUMP HAS HAD HIS FIRST CAR ACCIDENT--AND NOW HIS SECOND, THIRD AND FOURTH

AND HE'S NOT LEARNING YET. THE QUESTIONS IS BECOMING--"CAN HE LEARN?"

I’ve often said that it can be a good thing if a young person has an accident, not a bad one, a fender-bender or something mild like that, shortly after they first learn to drive.  Why?  It will make it very clear that driving is a serious business, a dangerous business, and it does not forgive carelessness.

A week ago, President Trump and his advisors had their first car accident within 24 hours of the Inauguration.  Actually, the accident began with the unforgiving, narrowly drawn, overly nationalistic substance and tone of the Inaugural Address itself.  

It was followed by a grievous error of focusing on the size of the crowd attending the Inauguration and outright lies describing the size of that crowd by the President and Kellyanne Conway. Trump even goes to the National Park Service to try to improve the picture. 

This was so unnecessary.  So dumb. 

A week ago, I wrote to express the hope President Trump and his Administration would look at this as I do.  Analogous to a "car accident" which serves to underscore he is now President and needs to act as the President.  Be thoughtful in his decisions. Be prepared in his remarks. Bring people together. Stop dividing them.  His success, more importantly the nation’s success, depends on this.

TWO DAYS LATER: I wrote:

The car accidents continue..and they were getting worse

1. Doubling down on the claim there were millions of illegal voters with no evidence at all undermining our electoral system worldwide. 

2. Contining to badger the press.

3. Continuing to say Mexico will pay for the wall when their President says they won't. His trip is canceled. 

Intemperate, from the chest tweets. People around him must control these instincts now or we as a Nation are at grave risk. 

I don't know why but he seems unable to control himself. Such behavior would not be condoned in any corporate or other serious institutional forum. 

FOUR DAYS LATER...HE IS STILL NOT LEARNING

The car accidents continue...and they are getting even more serious, posing greater risk to our National Security. 

1. A deeply flawed, terribly executed ban on immigrants from certain countries and refugees(mainly children and women)from war-torn Syria. It not only violates our Nation's values of human decency and throws hundreds of thousands if not millions into a threatened state of uncertainty, it will be fodder for ISIS and other terrorists to recruit new members. Our European allies are in dismay. 

2. An unprecedented  reorganization of the National Security Council removing the Director of Intelligence and Chairman of the  Joint Chief of Staff as permanent members.

3. A mind- bending and alarming (in the sense of what it says about Trump's mental state) late night tweet responding to Senator McCain's sharp criticism of Trump's refugee plan by saying that McCain was leading us into World War III.


I am relieved by and proud how the American public is standing up to oppose these insults to truth, human rights and common sense. Enough is enough.

We need Cabinet members and members of Congress to step up to rein in and bring reason to Trumps' impetuous, shoot-from-the hip, wrong-headed actions right away. 

This must include immediately rescinding the refugee ban. 

HEALTH CARE REFORM--LET'S DO IT RIGHT!

I AM RE-POSTING A SLIGHTLY UPDATED VERSION OF A BLOG I ORIGINALLY POSTED OVER TWO MONTHS AGO. 

YESTERDAY, REPUBLICAN HOUSE LEADERSHIP AND PRESIDENT TRUMP HAD TO PULL BACK ON THE VOTE FOR THE REPUBLICAN DRAFTED REPLACEMENT TO THE AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE ACT KNOWING THAT DESPITE ALL THE PRESSURE THEY COULD MUSTER, IT DID NOT HAVE THE VOTES TO PASS. 

ON THE ONE HAND, I AM GREATLY RELIEVED. THIS WAS PERHAPS THE POOREST CONCEIVED AND "CRUELEST" PIECES OF LEGISLATION I HAVE EVER SEEN. CITIZENS, REPUB LICANS AND DEMOCRATS ALIKE, TURNED OUT IN CONGRESSIONAL OFFICES IN HUGE NUMBERS TO PROTEST THE PROPOSED REPLACEMENT ACT. THIS HAS BEEN A CONFIDENCE BUILDING DEMONSTRATION THAT THE CITIZENS VOICE MATTERS WHEN IT IS FOCUSED ON A KEY ISSUE AND RELENTLESSLY ADVANCED. 

WHILE I AM, AS I SAY RELIEVED, EVEN MORE I AM SADDENED.

HERE IS YET MORE EVIDENCE THAT OUR POLITICAL PROCESS IS BROKEN. HEALTH CARE IS THE MOST COMPLEX OF ISSUES. IT HAS CONFRONTED OUR NATION WITH THE CHALLENGE TO FIND THE RIGHT WAY FORWARD NOT FOR YEARS, BUT FOR DECADES. IT REQUIRES INFORMED INPUT FROM HEALTH CARE AND INSURANCE EXPERTS; FROM EXPERIENCE IN OTHER COUNTRIES AND IN STATES IN OUR OWN. IT CALL FOR BI-PARTIANSHIP. WE KNOW THE ACA NEEDS TO BE IMPROVED AND SOON. WE KNOW OUR HEALTH CARE COSTS ARE TOO HIGH.

AS I SAID TWO MONTHS AGO, I SAY AGAIN, 

"SLOW DOWN, DO IT RIGHT, DE-POLITICIZE THE PROCESS" 

We have witnessed a furious political debate for the past six years about the Affordable Health Care Act. The debate continues today as Congress will decide how to replace and improve it. We are at a vital crossroads and we must choose the right path. The path we are on now promises more of the same: a politicized process that will continue to fracture the Nation and end up with a sub-optimum plan. It need not nor should it be this way.  

I start from the conviction that the legislation which will replace the ACA will have a greater impact on the everyday lives of the people of our Nation than ANY other legislation that will come before Congress in the next 4 years. We should act accordingly. 

My message is "slow down", "do it right", and "de-politicize" the process. 

The great majority of Republican and Democrats appear to agree on four key principles, all flowing from a joined conviction that ACA MUST be improved.

1. We should not cut back on coverage from that which has been achieved under the ACA.

2. The elimination of pre-conditions should be retained.

3. Costs should be reduced (we continue to have the highest cost without commensurate quality benefit).

4. We need to make it simpler for individuals/ families to get what they need. (A huge challenge). 

Let's get realistic.  Crafting a plan which will meet these principles is an enormously complex undertaking. There are a lot of ideas on the table but not one integrated plan, let alone one that has bi-partisan support. We should not be going ahead on a proverbial "gun to our head" time table. You can't get to the right plan in 30 -60 days especially with a new Administration coming into place. We have lived with ACA for years. Living with it for whatever few additional months are needed to get to the right next step is the right thing to do. 

Congress and the President's Administration should commit to achieve a plan that has bi-partisan agreement.The Democrats were roundly criticized for driving ACA through without Republican 

participation-- even though one should remember that President Obama tried for over a year to engage 
Republicans in developing a bi-partisan bill.

Be that is it may, health care has become the most sharply politicized issue during the past 6 years. It need not nor should it be that way.  Let's approach  this in a way that has the majorities of both parties working together.  It is the right thing to do. 

Action Proposal

1. Set the goal on both sides of the aisle of getting a bi-partisan plan which improves on ACA and take the time to do it. Set a reasonable but firm schedule.

2. Let the new Administration get in place including the new Secretary of HHS.

3. Form a bi-partisan Congressional Committee composed of Democratic and Republicans to come up with a plan that deals with the major issues with ACA which have been identified and which will have bi-partisan support. Bring the best expertise and learning to the creation of this plan: from health care and insurance experts; from experience in other countries and from the years of experience with the ACA.

We need to take the time to do this. To be sure, there will be controversy  surrounding any plan that emerges. There will be those on the right and the left who are unhappy with the final result. But we can and must reach a bi-partisan consensus based on a fact-based review of what are the key issues and how to best address them which will have the support of the majority of the citizens.

Our Nation is more divided than I have ever seen it. Trust has been eroded, including in Congress' s ability to work together to make good things happen. This distrust and frustration will be even greater now that the flawed Republican plan has not even been brought to a vote. 

The President and Congressional leaders should step back and take a deep breath, thinking only of how we go forward to get the best plan for the people of our nation we can.

They should put in place the process and take the time to craft a strong bi-partisan health care plan. Doing so will accomplish  two things.  

1. Get us to the the best possible plan.

2. Represent an enormous step to show we can de-politicize this process and work together for the common good. There are no magic bullets in changing the animosity filled climate that exists. However,  this would represent a defining step in the right direction.

In contrast, a health plan passed strictly on party lines will only exacerbate the current climate of division and resentment. We have seen that clearly over the last month. The other thing we have seen-- in the past week-- is that without bi-partisan support the legislation may not be passable in the first place given the split within the Republican party. 

Every major plan I was associated with in business didn't have it all right the first time. They all required changes. We now have six years of experience with ACA. We have identified things to be preserved and things to improve. We need to do this thoughtfully, taking the time needed to do it as best we can. It won't be the last change we make in our health care plans. But let's make it a smart change which has and deserves the support of the people (and their representatives) across the political spectrum. That's what  people of our Nation deserve at this critical moment of our history.  

FUELING AND ACTING ON OUR HOPE

Almost two months have passed since, for me,  the unimaginable and deeply worrying election of Donal Trump as the President of the United Staes.

Anyone who has followed my blogs will know that my attitude toward Trump's candidacy passed through several phases. In hindsight, it began as an all too superficial, even condescending view of Trump's campaign as a vaudeville act--unpredictably and bizarrely entertaining.

As the campaign wore on and Trump's Republican opponents fell by the wayside, I began to worry and to get angry. Not only about the substance of what Trump proposed--for example deporting 11 million people; making people's religious affiliation a binding criteria for entry to the U.S.; rejecting the truth of climate change; making blustering pronouncements which if carried out would risk a crippling trade war. Even more I rejected the crudeness of his manners, his meanness, his disrespect for others and his encouraging such disrespect among his followers, and his self-evident disregard for the truth.

 As I wrote the day after the election, "what troubles me to my bone is that the character he has lived throughout most of his life and the character and values he has expressed in the campaign are so utterly antithetical to what we seek for ourselves and we teach to our children". They would have immediately disqualified him for employment in any corporation or institution with which I have been associated.

The almost two months which have passed since the election have not changed the reality that we are facing a period of great uncertainty, more uncertainty than I can recall at any time of my life. Uncertainty domestically and in our foreign relations.

Trump's Cabinet and other key personal appointments are, with a few exceptions--General Mattis and Rex Tillerson for me personally-- not reassuring. While the "proof will be in the doing" he appears to be choosing people with little or no experience who hold policy views (e.g. on trade, health care, the environment, etc.) counter to what I believe, based on  history and the realities as I see them, are right for the American people and the world.

Trump's continued  ignoring of "truth" (e.g. claiming he won in a "landslide" and that there was widespread voter fraud); his continued non-stop "tweeting" on subjects of great  consequence (e.g. relations with China) and triviality (e.g. objecting to his treatment on CNN and "Saturday Night Live"); his making contrarian pronouncements on policy which remain in the province of our sitting President (e.g regarding Israel), all continue to portray a temperament unsuited for the Presidency of the United States.

Yet, with all this, I will not permit myself to be held back by a lack of hope for the future.

Fortunately, I found it easier to pursue a hopeful path in the midst of the promise of the recent Christmas Season.

One foundation of my hope for is that Trump shows no evidence of holding deep ideological commitments.  Above all else, he is committed to win. That is what drove his campaign and that is what has driven his business life.

I believe if he faces reality and listens to the best of his advisors, he is going to find that "winning" will require significant changes from policies he advocated in his campaign, including on health care, trade and immigration. We already see some signs of this. Only time will tell.

More  important to my hope for the future is my knowledge of the history of our country. We are fortunate to have a system of checks and balances. Most of what happens in our lives happens as a result of action at the State, Local and Community level. In the end, the American people as a whole usually figure out what makes sense.

We have been through periods of great threat to and attack on the values which lie at the foundation of our Nation's creation and continued existence. We have overcome them. We have not abandoned the values enunciated in our Declaration of Independence even though we have honored those values imperfectly and inconsistently.


We lived uncomfortably and tragically for more than a century with the institution of slavery before we abolished it. We witnessed the reversal of the short-lived, still- born conferral of Freedom on Black men and women during Reconstruction. We lived through and survived the depression and emergence of Hitler of the 1930s; the Cold War with its threat of nuclear annihilation, a threat which remains with us today. We survived the McCarthy era and the continued repression of Blacks which gave rise to the Civil Rights movement which continues today.

Still, while it has been written that  knowledge of history can protect us against what can be the fatiguing, hope- draining "hysteria" of the moment, it cannot allow us to become complacent. For it is true:  history, especially in the short and medium term, rests on a proverbial "knife-edge". It can go either way. And which way it goes is very dependent on individual leadership, for better or worse. Imagine if we had not had Lincoln or Churchill or Gorbachev or Nelson Mandela when we did. Recall the damage done by President Andrew Johnson or Hitler or Stalin.

Still, Hope alone is not enough. As General Gordon Sullivan aptly titled his book--"Hope is not a Method".

We have to put Hope into ACTION in our own lives.

And we have to demand that others act in line with the values of compassion, justice and respect for the dignity and Freedom of all.

I draw on these words of Langston Hughes in his poem, "Freedom's Plow" for inspiration:

"America!
Land created in common,
Dream nourished in common,
Keep your hand on the plow! Hold on!
If the house is not yet finished,
Don't be discouraged, builder!
If the fight is not yet won,
Don't be weary, soldier!
The plan and pattern is here,
Woven from the beginning
Into the warp and woof of America:
ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.
To the enemy who would conquer us from without,
We say, NO
To the enemy who would  divide us from within, We say, NO
FREEDOM!
BROTHERHOOD!
DEMOCRACY!
To all the enemies of these great words,
We say, NO!

No one has articulated our individual responsibility and opportunity to ACT  more passionately than Robert F. Kennedy in his timeless charge to youth in South Africa a half century ago.

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends out a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep done the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Finally, during this Christmas season at a service in Cincinnati , Ohio,  the Pastor of my church, Reverend Paula Jackson, also challenged us to act on Hope:

"We welcome the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Christmas for revolutionaries is not a nostalgic recall of idealized images. It is not a superficial emotional response. In bleak days, we seek a blessed hope to motivate us; a glory that shines in the darkness and keeps us moving forward. We don't need to feel better. We need to change the world.

Beware of accepting the grace of God. You will need to share it with people who are not like you. It will make you a revolutionary in a dangerous time. You will not be able to make peace with injustice. You will not be able to harden your heart. You will run, and lift your voice, proclaiming Glory to God, on earth peace to all people".

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Yes, as we begin this New Year of 2017, we face a period of  great uncertainty and challenge. But we cannot allow that to deter us. We have been here before. We must continue.

As I have said to myself many times when facing a challenge or set back, "I need to move forward with courage and determination to get done what needs to be done in my circle of influence; to do what I believe is right".

In the immortal words of Winston Churchill in this famous six word speech: " Never, never, never never give up".