Beer Summit

Maybe someone thought it would be a nice photo op to have them sit all folksy at a white plastic table served beer by - a butler. If I were staging it, I would have had Biden lugging a small cooler of frosties on a golf cart.

But no. It was yet another lost opportunity either to have some fun, or to resolve the conflict. Almost like an Israeli - Palestinian peace talk, all the parties seemed to smile and nod their heads and then went back to business as usual.

I am ready to move on to some more meaty news topic, how about you?

Who are You Calling a Racist?

Race has become the big issue here in the MetroWest area with the Gates case getting so much play. Indeed it became a national issue when President Obama remarked on the case during his press conference. Today, everyone is breathlessly awaiting the outcome of the beer summit.

As an aging, technically overweight white guy, I have to say that I am getting weary of all the very successful thin black men continuing to blather about racial discrimination. It is unseemly. Some of them got their shot at success because a majority of white guys believe that justice demanded a level playing field. Affirmative action, EEO, and many other acronyms were devised to the end of giving a brother a chance. I never complained that my tax money was being used to give kids breakfast, or to support the METCO. Many people in our community hosted inner city kids and helped them financially and spiritually during their high school and college years.

So I am getting a little tired of being assumed to be a racist. It seems to me that there are a lot of successful black men and women out there. The majority of us voted for a black governor here in Massachusetts, and for a black president of the USA. Where is the racism in that? Yes, I know it is still out there. People still dislike Jews and Irish and Indians and Arabs... Prejudice exists in every culture. In the US, we have done just about everything governmentally that can be done to assure a level playing field. What is left to do now is for people to stop using discrimination as an excuse for not trying. No one liked Pakistanis or Koreans when they moved in, and because the stuck together and worked hard, many have done very well.

Folks, the fact is that in 2009, most of the white people I know do not judge others by the color of a person's skin; they judge them by the way they talk, the way they are dressed and the way they behave. These may be superficial characteristics, but this is reality. People of color are being judged today the same way we judge other white people.

Discrimination is real; but I do not believe it is based upon skin color these days for the majority of educated Americans. People like to quote MLK and focus on character. But, you can't judge character until you get to know someone. No one will bother to learn the content of another's character if they never get to meet them.

The point is that in the USA today, discrimination is a class thing, an education and an economic thing - as it always has been true for and among white folks. The real insidious aspect of perceived discrimination is when you believe that your failure is because of bias against you, there is a tendancy to use that as an excuse to give up. In my experience, talent trumps bias, nine out of ten times.
Time for a beer. Then a nap.

Don't Tase me Bro

Wow, talk about unintended consequences! A minor verbal scuffle between a white Cambridge police officer and a black Harvard University professor escalates to a national debate on racial attitudes. Even the White House got involved - much to Obama's chagrin.

In case you have been hiding in a cave for the past ten days (and who could blame you) the facts of the story might be summarized as follows:

1. Passerby witness observes two men who appear to be attempting to break into a house, calls 911. (The men are Professor Gates and his limo driver, both black, trying to unstick the front door of Gates' house.)
2. Officer Crowley arrives on scene, answering a suspected B&E call. Does not see suspects (now inside the house), calls for back-up and approaches the house.
3. There is an exchange of words between Officer Crowley and Prof Gates. The content of the discussion is a matter of disagreement. Prof. Gates claims that he never raised his voice and contended that Crowley was racially profiling him and refused to identify himself despite several requests, and that he was handcuffed and arrested without provocation. Crowley wrote in the police report that he did identify himself and that the Professor was acting in a belligerent manner, yelling and disturbing the peace. This account was substantiated by an assisting officer on the scene. At this point it is mainly a local story.
4. The next day, at the urging of Gates' attorney and the Mayor of Cambridge, the charges against Gates are dropped.
5. After a brief period of silence, Prof Gates goes on national TV to tell his side of the story. He calls Crowley a rogue cop and suggests that the officer should "beg his forgiveness."
6. At the end of a press conference intended to boost support for his Health care plan, Obama foolishly answers a question about the Gates affair. He says that he doesn't have all the facts, and that he might be "a little biased" because Gates is a personal friend, then he says that the "Cambridge Police acted stupidly."
7. The next day, the case is headline news (the Health care plan is all but dead - front page below the fold). NBC nightly news devotes 9 minutes to this lead story. The Cambridge Police Department holds its own press conference supporting Officer Crowley and his actions. The police chief expresses regret that the charges were dropped, because it lent credibility to the accusations of racial profiling.
8. The next day, the Policeman's Union voices full support for Crowley.
9. In subsequent days, it leaks out that there is a tape recording of part of the exchange between Crowley and Gates from the shoulder mike that the Office was using to report on the status of the situation. The tape has not been released, but is believed to exonerate Crowley.
10. Obama seeing the error of his involvement, calls Crowley to be sure that his remarks were not interpreted to imply that he was criticizing him or the department. He suggests that they get together with Gates for a beer to shoot the bull and show that there are no hard feelings. Crowley becomes local hero.
11. Jesse Jackson goes on TV to say that both parties may have over reacted. This is tantamount to throwing Gates "under the bus."
12. Prof Gates declares that the story is over, but asserts that there may be a teachable moment is the situation. He does not admit fault but agrees to meet with Obama and Crowley for a beer.
13. to be continued?

There are a number of reasons why this melodrama was so fascinating.

First of all, the incidence of racial profiling by police is not an anomaly for most blacks. Almost every black man in America has a personal story where they have been rousted and even roughed-up by a white cop without cause. Even Obama has mentioned this outrage in his autobiography. In the first few days after this incident, I along with most of the readers of the daily newspapers thought it was going to turn out to be another of these racial injustices - this time against a prominent scholar and esteemed member of the community, not some unknown teenager dressed like a gang member. Now, it looks like there was a little bit of "The prof who cried racist." Most white people don't think all white cops are racist, so we are glad to see that he is not another Mark Fuhrman (who was probably responsible for OJ getting off).

But most of all, the story is an illustration of how an event can be seen in different ways depending upon who is watching, and what their life experiences are. I think the Tie-breaker in this case was the photo of Prof Gates which was snapped by a neighbor who happened to have his camera/cell phone handy. The photo clearly shows a man yelling at cops. That image was worth 1,000 words. (BTW, The guy who took the photo sold it for $4,000). In most cases of He-said-he-said where there are no witnesses, we are forced to believe what our experience tells us is most likely true.

Finally, I can see that I never would have made a good policeman. If anyone got in my face while I was trying to do my job, I wouldn't care what color he was, I'd have Tased him.

Retirement - the final frontier

People who have been getting-up and going into an office or job site on a daily basis for thirty years or so, begin to develop fantasies about how it is going to be when they retire. They think that retirement is going to be like going to heaven without the inconvenience of dying.

We dream of Golfing or fishing every day, trips to the beach, see the latest movies, travel to foreign ports, road trips, more golf, more beer, naps ...

Actually, it's a fantasy. Achieving Nirvana is an elusive goal. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that technically I am free to go fishing or sleep all day - whatever I choose. But, like most aspects of life, there is a murkier side. The life of leisure costs money, more money than you or your accountant thought you would need. And there is never enough time...

Retirement 'specialists' tell you that you can live more cheaply after retirement. After you quit working you will no longer have any commuting costs, or the need for professionally cleaned and pressed clothes, or those exorbitant lunch expenses, right? Whe you retire you imagine you'll just wear the same clothes for at least week, make your own frugal lunches of egg salad or tuna sandwiches, and take long walks in the morning...


Not quite. I can verify that one quickly gets tired of those cheaply assembled meals. Sometimes it is raining and those long morning walks do not seem so necessary when the torrents are licking at your ankles.

The other thing you realize in retirement is that people think of you in a different way. You no longer have the excuse of the all important job to avoid the demands of family and friends. Suddenly, you realize that there are people who suddenly need you. Perhaps it is just the favor of a ride to the Dr.'s office or an occasional pick-up at the airport. These people would never have bothered to ask when you were working. If your grown kids live nearby, they think that being retired means that you have nothing to do. They don't realize that you are busy, so they load you up with babysitting requests - which you cannot refuse. Freedom to nap is severely limited when you have toddlers to monitor.

Now that you have the time to schedule lunches and even cocktails with working friends and fellow retirees, the calendar gets filled-up fast. But all these lunches and cocktails cost money, and you can't wear the same clothes for a week at a time if you are going to be social. You need to get a decent haircut every three or four weeks. And you want to take those trips you always deferred. No more 4 day get-a-ways; now you can stay as long as you want. (How about a month in Florida next Winter? Can I get a 'Hell, yes?')

Many people plan for retirement by socking away enough money in a retirement account to throw off enough interest to help fund their retirement expenses. We did that. But we did not foresee the meltdown of everything we hold sacred, and the erosion of the nest egg. We didn't consider the fact that we still need to buy new cars every 4 or 5 years, and fix the ones we have. The house seems to deteriorate faster after retirement, the grass and remaining hair seem to grow faster.

We thought that we had enough saved to travel to those places in Europe that we never got around to. Maybe sell the homestead and move to a nice coastal location and get a small boat. We could do that and still leave a little behind for the kids when we are gone. But the value of our property is down and so are the IRA balances.

So, instead of going to boat shows and touring Europe, I am mowing my own lawn, getting haircuts at the bargain place and touring nearbye Canada.

Mind you I am not complaining; I am merely noting that God seems to laugh at our plans. So, you might want to plan accordingly.

Sounds of Summer

This is the noisiest summer I can recall since the time our Siamese female was "in heat." (If this was a Family Guy episode the screen would flashback to a cameo of a young Siamese cat roaming about the house wailing until she finds the (neutered) male. She gets in front of him offering a good rut. He just sits there with a quizzical look on his face wondering what's for dinner... In the next scene, she has been taken to a breeder and is introduced to a big fat smiling stud, who knows exactly what to do. Fade to waves rolling-in. ) That was about ten years ago.


So, what happened to the once-quiet, "sleepy" suburbs? Maybe it just seemed quieter when I was a full time worker. In those days I would out of the house and locked in the daily commute with the radio turned-up by the time the landscape guys swarmed into the neighborhood with their infernal noise machines, or the tree cutters with their gas powered chain saws. And what tree job would be complete without the noisiest device ever to be invented by man - the wood chipper.


Around here, it has not been quiet in years. We live a few hundred yards away from the local railroad station so we get a regular dose of very loud horn blasting by all approaching Amtrak and freight trains. Railroad rules, we are told. Every house on this street - including ours - has had some sort of noisy building project that involved loudtalking men with hammers and saws. And their Boomboxes, of course. Oh, and let us not forget the ubiquitous compressor motor that runs all day.


The latest neighborhood construction job is particularly aggravating since it involves a custom stone wall made of New England Schist. This will not be like the silent wall of Robert Frosts memories - glacially rounded boulders that eventually succumb to gravity. No, this wall is built out of flat sections of sedimentary granite. Each stone is sawed from a larger piece and hammer trimmed, fitted and cemented well enough to survive a nuclear attack. The masons are diligent, working from 7:30am to dusk, which is past dinnertime hereabouts. The noise is irritating.

So that's why I am using these high tech earplugs so I can take a nap. Huh? did someone say something?

Damp-end

We are back from our foreign travels - pale, damp and wrinkled. We only saw the sun on three brief occasions since last Sunday. None of those days happened during our three day stay at Old Orchard Beach. It would have been a wash-out but we enjoyed being with kids and grand kids on the beach in the fog when it was not raining hard.

Wednesday, the sun broke out as we approached the Montpelier, VT environs. It stayed that way all the way to the Canadian-NY border. We took an enjoyable ferry ride across Lake Champlain to Plattsburg in full sunlight. In Canada, driving west on 202, we ran into a monster storm that looked like one of those Tornado Hunter videos, with low angry clouds and lots of lightning and thunder. Somehow, we arrived without any disasters.

The second time the sun came out was on Thursday morning. We had a nice walk around Hamilton Island in Ontario, right on the St Lawrence Seaway. Our excellent hosts sheltered and fed us for two days. Margaritas help raise the spirits when it is raining.
We returned via Syracuse, where we met friends (whom we originally met on our UK trip in 2006) for lunch. It was a brief but enjoyable reunion. It was sunny outside. Most of the ride back on I-90 was intermittent clouds and rain.

There was a lot of driving, but since we had expert routing information and only got lost a few times. OOB was the same as I remember it from my youth. Nice long beach with good waves and clean water. Typical of "vintage" vacation communities in New England - down to earth, affordable, not too pretentious (except the claim on the sign for Debby's Diner: "Best coffee East of the Mississippi river!"). And, where else would you find a hair salon named "Curl up and Dye" ?


We didn't watch the news or read any newspapers, but from the brief images I saw on the TV in one of the rest areas, I gather that Michael Jackson has faked his death so he could run off with the Governor of Alaska. Details to follow.