Raising all our Elijahs – a plea for the environment

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The following post was written twelve years ago. Its message still is needed.

Earlier this week, I had the distinct pleasure to hear Dr. Sandra Steingraber speak on the significant environmental crisis that has been with us for some time and the impact past, current and future events will have on the environment and us in the future. I say pleasure, but in fact, she scared the crap out of me and everyone in attendance which was her purpose. Dr. Steingraber is an ecologist, author, cancer survivor and mother of two. Her most recent book about her son is called “Raising Elijah – Protecting our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis” and it follows her earlier book called “Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer.” She is a frequent public speaker and has testified in front of Congress, the United Nations and the European Parliament to name a few. Her first book has been made into a film by The People’s Picture Company of Toronto.

She tells her stories from each of her lenses, but her most impactful lens is the one told as a mother of two. I am currently reading “Raising Elijah” and would encourage each of you to read it and tell others about it. I will move onto her first book after this one. She attests that when you speak of these issues as a mother (or parent), it resonates with everyone as we all wish for our children to live healthy lives. She notes she has been able to bring pro-life and pro-choice believers together on these issues.

In her mind, there are two types of crises with the environment – the toxic crisis and the climate change crisis. The toxic crisis has been with us for some time and decisions and exposures from many years ago are still affecting people now. The climate change crisis is very real and, in addition, to the other issues it creates, it heightens the impact of the toxic crisis even more. Elevated temperatures and the impact on the ozone will only make current matters worse. From a mother’s perspective, the impact on our children is worse than it is on adults. She notes the obvious, but children are closer to the ground where many of the toxins reside, they have a much higher degree of mouth breathing meaning they will take in more air per pound, they put their hands in their mouth about ten times an hour plus they will be exposed for longer periods due to their age than adults to toxins. A few facts that will heighten the issue the issue:

– 1 out of 8 US children are born prematurely which is traceable to the environment; early births mean the lungs are not fully created, so life long breathing issues will result;

– 1 out of 11 US children have asthma (1 out of 4 in Harlem);

– 1 in 10 US children will have a learning disability;

– 1 in 110 US children will have some form of Autism; and

– 1 in 10 US white girls and 1 in 5 US black girls will have breast development before the age of 8, which translates into menopausal and other issues.

I wish to tell you these numbers are made up, but they are well-grounded. And, the higher propensity can be traced to toxins that have been allowed to exist in the air, water and even playgrounds. The latter will make you furious, but the pressurized wood we have in many of our playgrounds is loaded with arsenic, copper and chromium, so our children and adults with our pressurized decks, are exposed to these chemicals. Adding to that, it  is measured that 60% of Americans live in areas where the air is unhealthful. So, from her perspective, “an investment in green energy is also an investment in cancer prevention.”

I went to hear her speak as she is one of the biggest opponents of hydro-fracturing or fracking to release and harvest natural gas. What I expected to hear is the impact fracking has on the nearby water where the chemicals used to fracture the shale gets in the water table. I also expected to hear about the significant increase in earthquakes in areas where fracking is done. These are a problem. Yet her major concern is what is released into the air and its impact on many today and in the future. Air pollution is what is causing the conditions in children and adults.

She notes the US is now doing and promoting Four Extreme Measure of Fossil Fuel Extraction – (1) mountain top removal, (2) tar sands, (3) deep-sea oil drilling and (4) fracking. All of these impact our environment greatly, but fracking gives her the most alarm. She advocates we must have a strategy to cease all new fossil fuel extraction now and invest in renewable forms of energy. Her point is any change will not impact the climate change for about 15 years, so we must divorce ourselves now from new fossil fuels.

What can we do? Reading from “Climate Change and Your Health – Rising Temperatures, Worsening Ozone Pollution,”  by the Union of Concerned Scientists, we should be doing the following:

– investing in more fuel-efficient cars and reducing the miles driven;

– developing fuels that are less carbon-intensive;

– providing good public transit and other commuting/ travel alternatives;

– increasing energy efficiency at industrial and commercial facilities;

– developing and retrofitting homes and buildings to be more efficient;

– using more renewable energy resources – such as wind, solar and geothermal – to generate electricity;

– ensuring that ozone and carbon-reduction standards are strong enough to be truly protective of public health; and

– working collaboratively with global partners to reduce carbon emissions from other countries.

The issues and solutions require concerted effort and input from all parties. This issue more than any scares me most if the GOP takes the White House. I feel we will not only lose momentum, but many of the policies of the GOP are the exact opposite of what we need to do. When Newt Gingrich has to disavow that he changed his mind on global warming when he appeared with Nancy Pelosi (I guess we are to shake up our Etch-a-Sketch to erase it from our memories) that is a telling point for me. The President is on the right track, but he needs to do more and he needs the Republicans to join him at the table and stop being ostriches with their head in the sand. And, once you read Dr. Steingraber’s book I hope you have a better grasp that we need a concerted effort now to save our children – our Elijahs. Forget the debt, forget the economy, forget social values – none of that will matter if we don’t fix this problem. The human and economic cost will dwarf any of these issues.

A MAGA fan says Trump is the answer to Obama and Biden

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A MAGA fan said (among his shots at liberal emailers) that Obama has caused all our problems and Biden is corrupt, yet Trump has done no wrong and is the answer. He said name one bad Trump policy. As an independent, here are a few observations that I shared with him and the group.

– under Obama, there were 91 months of consecutive GDP growth (3rd longest ever), six straight years of 2 + million per annum job growth and a more than doubled stock market after inheriting an economy in a housing recession from Bush; the GDP growth continued for awhile under Trump;

– under Obama, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was implemented which works well and the ACA was passed which is working pretty well now;

– under Trump he passed a tax law that increased the debt by about $2 trillion that gave us a sugar rush for about a year then the economy fell back before the pandemic took us into recession;

– under Trump (and continued by Biden unfortunately), he introduced tariffs which never work as consumers are the ones who are punished (by the way, Trump lied to Americans about twenty times that the Chinese paid for the tariffs each time he was corrected by economists);

– under Trump, climate change research was removed from US government websites, climate scientists were reassigned and we left the Paris Climate Change Accord (Biden fortunately got us back in).

Then there is all of Trump’s other stuff – bogus election fraud claims, causing an insurrection, election meddling, mishandling of classified information, pandemic mishandling and his autocratic bent. There are reasons why a group of 154 historians of all political stripes voted Trump the worst president in US history. Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt agrees as do I. Biden is not perfect, but there is a clear light of day difference between him and the low ranking Trump.

That is what this former Republican of 25 + years thinks.

At least Martha was accountable

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I had a thought watching a Martha Stewart commercial. Some folks may have forgotten that Martha got in trouble for acting on an insider trading tip a few years ago.

Martha accepted accountability for her insider-trading crime and went to prison. Contrast Martha’s accountability with a certain former president who consistently says he does nothing wrong and people just don’t like him.

Using an intended sexist term toward the chest-beating former president, Martha was “more of a man than him” taking her punishment. Trump is more like a little toddler whose mommy took his toy away to punish him.

I shared with my wife, Martha is a lot tougher than the former president. But, so are a lot of women. Former Rep. Liz Cheney is by far the most courageous person in the Republican Party. Knowing she would get and continue getting death threats, she called out the former president for his bogus election fraud claims and role in the insurrection.

So, kudos to Martha and Liz for their courage.

A little vignette

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Republicans cannot get out of their own way sometimes. The best example is their beating on their chest and repeating a mantra of “Border Security,” only to have a largely Republican crafted bill on, drum roll please, “Border Security” get voted down by Republicans. Why? Because their Kool-Aid pouring presidential candidate said it would be bad for him if passed.

Note to all. Please re-read the above paragraph. My source is the Wall Street Journal, a conservative publication. It clearly shows the issues are just props.

That brings us to contraception. Contraception protection was voted down as ten Republicans would not vote to move the issue forward. My guess is every one of the Republican members has had sex where contraceptives of some form were used. If it is not everyone, it is close to 100%. So, when that same Kool-Aid guy runs hot and cold on contraception, (sometimes in the same day) it concerns people.

But, here is the deal that “banners” don’t realize. In the age of the internet, people will find a way to order and get what they need. Even non-internet measures are used. When Americans are charged $1,600 for a 90 day Rx, they can get said Rx for $300 from Canada or Australia because R&D costs cannot be charged in those countries. Some forward-thinking people would travel into Canada to get a prescription drug for less money.

The same thing will happen with contraception or banned books. I am certain some enterprising folks will make it known. As for the books, one reader said his Republican governor provided him a reading list with his book banning.

Smaller plates, less white foods – a second helping

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The following is a second helping of an earlier post, not the food itself. Since we are doing more boredom eating and likely eating more comfort food, here are a couple of tips that help me keep my weight somewhat level. Use smaller plates and eat less white foods.

The latter is not a race connotation. It is a reference to those fattening carbs – potatoes, pasta, rice and breads. And, we sure love those items. So, the key to their intake, short of abstinence from them, is portion control – use a smaller plate and don’t go back for seconds (or limit what seconds look like).

I have been able to slowly take off and keep off the pounds. This has been an extended journey over five years involving light exercises each morning, walking and hiking and shrinking portions. The key to the latter is eat less of the good tasting, bad foods.

So, what has worked for me are some of the following:

– use a smaller plate for meals
– share meals of take out food (order one steak, potato, salad for the two of you)
– eat fewer potatoes, less pasta, rice and only one piece of bread, if you must
– eat bread-less (or maybe one bun) hamburgers, hotdogs, sandwiches
– when snacking, do not take the bag to the couch, put what you want in a small bowl
– when snacking, filling items like dried fruits or mixed nuts will pacify that hunger pang
– eat more green, red, and yellow foods, especially the green ones

If you are pre-diabetic, watch any fruits because of the sugar intake, and definitely cut down on the carbs, because the body will convert them to sugar. Also, unsalted or lightly salted nuts are better than those laden with salt. If you indulge one night, just make-up for it the next few days. I have a target weight. When I pop over it a few pounds, then I will eat more salads for lunch.

But, please do not take my advice by itself and check with you doctor before you do anything drastic. One final note – know your numbers: weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose. This will help you devise a long term plan.

War is old men talking and young people dying

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The following was written about twelve (with a sequel three) years ago, but it still has merit. I repeat it to honor our Veterans on Memorial Day and Flag Day.

The above title is a paraphrased line from the movie “Troy” and while I cannot find it among any of the quotes from Homer’s “Iliad” it still resonates with me. Achilles is highly frustrated with Agamemnon and the other kings celebrating the day’s victory in battle, which none of them fought in. He is counseled with these words. You know what war is all about – “war is old men talking and young men fighting.” I use this quote today to honor our men and women who have fought in battles. They are the ones who put their lives in harm’s way and it is they who should be commended.

If you fought for your country, whether the cause was justified or not, you deserve to be honored. When you are lying in the mud or a foxhole and are being shot at, whether we went into a war without good cause is moot. You are there doing your job in the direst of circumstances. Our country learned that lesson from Vietnam where returning veterans did not get treated with the proper respect. This war dragged on and people asked why are we sending our teenagers and young adults to die over there? The Pentagon Papers revealed later our leaders were not very forthcoming as to the reasons, knowing the war was unwinnable.

We have similar kind of war going on which began in Iraq and has continued into Afghanistan. We have been doing this for over ten years. The reason for being there has now been called into question, yet there we still sit. However, the lesson we learned from Vietnam has at least helped Americans treat our troops better. They did not pick the fight with Iraq or Afghanistan, yet they are there to fight it our battles for us.

And, there is one other similarity to Vietnam and the gulf wars which makes it so tough on our troops and causes even more PTSD. The enemy combatants are hiding among the civilians. Our troops have to be on their guard even more, as they do not want to kill innocent people, yet the innocents don’t have a “red jersey” on like a quarterback in practice which says don’t hit me. This has to create a greater stress level to an already stressed situation.

What I don’t care for is when old men get together to discuss sending young people in harm’s way without doing their due diligence. Let’s just bomb Iran and get it over with you will hear some old men say, such as Asher Edelman at a recent speech. Or, let’s just invade Syria as some members of Congress and Senate have stated. This may be the reason I hold Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove in lesser regard as they sent Americans to die under false pretenses in Iraq. My thesis is before you commit Americans to die, do our country, soldiers and their families the duty of making damn sure we have exhausted every other means. I don’t fault the President at all for wanting to go to Congress rather than just bomb Syria for the chemical weapons. Now, we have a diplomatic solution that may lead to more discussions.

So, let’s honor our Veterans. They have done our country a great service and some have paid the dearest price with their lives, minds and bodies. Let’s honor them by doing our homework to avoid conflict whenever possible and taking care of them when they return. We have too many veterans wandering the streets when they get back and too many waiting in line for disability and medical help. We need to fight less and serve them more. Thanks for your service.

Nepotism and sycophancy

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Nepotism often lives in poorly run organizations where loyalty is valued over competence. Sycophancy is how nepotism diminishes organizations. Acquiescing to foolish decisions is not a recipe for success.

I just read yet another example of why the current actual antics of the Republican Party are more comical than the lampooning comics. Co-chair of the Republican National Committee, Lara Trump, said they are debating supporting ex-Maryland governor and senate candidate Larry Hogan. Hogan had the temerity to tell Republicans to “respect the verdict” of her father-in-law’s case.

That of course runs counter to her father-in-law’s messaging that it was all political. When that happens, the older Trump usually fires the person who says something different – see Christopher Krebs, Jeff Sessions and William Barr as examples.

It is very telling the people calling the former president out on his crimes, sins and misdeeds get vilified and receive death threats. And, they know they will and do so anyway. That should speak volumes, but it misses the mark. Only folks who drank the Trump Kool-Aid are recognized as legitimate speakers. Calling out the emperor wanna-be for being naked is grounds for no support.

So much for being a professionally run organization.

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PS – I encourage you to reach our to the National Republican Senate Committee to share your comments and concerns:

Please let us know your questions or comments for the NRSC.

You can email us, call us or send us a letter.

Our address is:

NRSC
425 2nd St. NE
Washington, D.C. 20002

Our phone number is: Phone: (202) 675-6000

Their email template can be found at NRSC.org.

Patience is a virtue – once more for emphasis

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I wrote the following post twelve years ago. It still has merit in my view.

At the age of 53, I can attest with experience that many of the mistakes I have made in my life could be directly traceable to impatience. While far from perfect, I would say between family and health, my life has been good thus far, so my mistakes have fortunately not derailed me too much. I guess the key is to learn from the mistakes and try to minimize future ones. Using a golf analogy, life is a game of managing your mistakes. As long as you can find the ball, you can always knock it back into play. You just have to manage expectations. And, a good sense of humor helps.

When I have been impatient, the mistakes have occurred at a higher propensity. Please don’t accept this as a truism that each time I have been impatient a mistake occurred. I would be dead otherwise. Yet, when I look backwards from the mistake, there seems to be a high correlation with my acting impatiently or witnessing someone who did and the mistake or near mistake.

The easiest example is a car accident and is one reason I am writing this today. My eldest son’s car was totaled earlier this week in an accident due to someone else’s impatience. He is fine as is the other driver, but the other driver decided to run a red light rather than slowing down and hit the front of my son’s car. He had the turn signal and proceeded into the intersection, yet the other driver kept coming. A sidebar lesson for him. me and others is to always pause after a light turns and look for those impatient drivers. Fortunately, he is alive to execute this strategy in the future.

As I look at the accidents I have been in, whether caused by me or another driver, I can say it was due to impatience. People acting in haste to do something without thinking through the consequences is a bad combination with a 3,500 pound vehicle in motion. This does not count the close calls which could be traceable to impatience. So, what I have learned? Following distance cures most traffic problems, pausing before pulling out in front of someone avoids difficulties and the light will change again soon, so rushing through serves little purpose. I have witnessed people pulling out in front of a car where if they waited, there was no traffic three cars behind the other driver. So, the merging driver could have been totally safe if they waited five seconds, but risked their life by being impatient.

Other good examples can be traced to electronic communication which permit the rapid response to something you don’t like at first. I use the words “at first” since some messages are not that bad, but the responding writer is reacting to the messenger more so than the message. When Blackberries first came on the scene, I told one colleague that he needed to throw his in the ocean. “Why?” he asked. The reason is he would react to the messenger and set off a fire storm of messages that would escalate an issue that was not an issue to begin with. He just had some poor dealings with the messenger in the past.

As further evidence of the power of electronic media is people who do something that they thought was a good idea at the time. We have a former Congressman, an otherwise reasonably sane public servant, who resigned because he thought sending a picture of his “junk” to a female was a good idea. I cannot think of any time or reason why sending that kind of picture could ever be seen as a good idea. I am not saying this is the case, but we need to amend the rule about mixing testosterone, alcohol and explosives to replace “explosives” with “electronic media.” Bad decisions by males under the influence can be explosive when using electronic media. I am sure if the Congressman had been more patient, he would have come to the conclusion that this was not the smartest of ideas.

The lesson to be learned here is do not send anything negative or that might embarrass you via the electronic media. Reread any email, text, Twitter or Facebook post before hitting “enter” or “send.” A question you may ask yourself is “how would this look?” if it went viral or was published in online or print news. Relating to the faster means of communication of Twitter, texting and Facebook, also ask yourself is it important that someone knows what you do at every moment of the day? I personally am not that interested to know the every minute details of people I love, so I sure don’t need to read about the mundane actions of people I don’t.

A related lesson ties the first two sets of examples together – nothing is that important to text when you are behind the wheel of a 3,500 pound vehicle. If you do text and drive, let me say it plainly – “you are being a dumb ass and your being such is putting you and others at risk.” Do not think you can do both without risk. I recall a “Myth Buster” episode where they proved you drove worse when on a mobile phone than when driving drunk.

The final example also involves communication, but are of the verbal kind. It is hard to unsay what has been said. So, please think or at least pause before you speak. We are all guilty of this. We have said something that may have sounded good at the time, but did not come across well. I have quoted this saying before – “you have two ears and one mouth, so use them in that proportion.” The best advice I can give is you do not have to share your opinion or be right at every time. Silence is golden. One of my great pleasures as a parent is to hear my children say or do the right thing that my wife or I have shared or demonstrated before. They now are owning the behavior. Some people would be tempted to say, “I told you that,” but the best course is to be quiet and silently thank God or some higher being that the messages or lessons are heeded.

Patience is a virtue. Do not be in such a hurry that you make mistakes. And, the world does not need to know your every thought or action, so by being patient and keeping it to yourself, you may be doing yourself and the world a favor. By taking the time to observe more of what is happening around you, you will learn more and be better for it. You only have one life, so don’t rush through it.

Unfit for the job

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In The Oklahoman yesterday, Jim Young wrote an editorial under the following headline: “Trump is unfit for the most important job in the world. His felony conviction proves it.” The subheadline adds a little more color. “This trial demonstrated the most dangerous thing about Donald Trump: his total disdain for the entire legal, political and democratic processes which are the foundation of our society.”

A few paragraphs tell more of the story. “So, Donald Trump is now officially a convicted felon, the only president of the United States to be officially designated as such. There are many things about this trial that were revealing about Trump and about our country’s current status. The good news is that the trial was conducted with an appropriate amount of decorum. We didn’t see violent demonstrations. The judge appeared to maintain control of his courtroom and the whole process from jury selection to conclusion seemed to be handled properly. He even exercised some control over Trump’s big mouth! The lawyers presented their cases in a professional manner. The jury methodically and efficiently did their duty in weighing the facts and reaching a verdict. In short, the judicial system of the United States of America worked as it should.”

I think the last two sentences speak volumes. It did work. A jury found an unjust acting person guilty of crimes he was charged with. As his sycophants and fans speak of unfairness, of political machinations, of the crimes not being that bad, not as many are saying “he did not do these things.” Twelve people who heard and read the evidence determined he did.

Being scared usually comes from everyday events

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My wife and I were listening to a song made famous by the Classics Four, “Spooky.” A key line goes “Love is kind of crazy with a spooky little girl like you.” The song made us segue to the movie “Play Misty for me” with Clint Eastwood and Jessica Walter.

Eastwood played a popular DJ with Walter being a zealous fan and stalker, that he sleeps with before knowing such. In one of the scariest moments in movie history, Eastwood’s character awakens to find Walter’s character standing beside his bed with a moon-shimmering knife over him ready to plunge. Yikes.

Horror movies are scary, but some of their scary moments would never happen in real life or very rarely happen. I fully understand evil exists and these moments do happen, but not as often as in the movies.

I have shared before about a movie called “The Kiss,” where an invasive mind controlling parasite is passed to its next host by a kiss. Yet, the scariest thing that happens occurs at the outset. The wife and mother is messing with the faulty toaster when milk is spilled on the floor. She steps in the milk and is electrocuted in front of her family that can do nothing. No Public Service Announcement can illustrate safety better than that scene.

Yet, the more common scary scenes are terrifying for parents. Losing your child in a public place is the worst. Time seems like it lasts forever. Twenty seconds seems like several minutes.

When your child gets hurt is another. They tend to be very durable, but broken bones, sprains, bruises, et al happen. But, the moments you wait to find out how bad are also elongated. A child falling from a tree. A child stumbling into a table or door frame can cause pain for both the child and parent.

Getting very sick is another. These are the times parents pray. We need help for all to make it through things.

I mention these scary things, as they happen every day to someone. Some parent(s) are dealing with these things right now. Other scary things are happening in the world which deserve our attention. But, let’s hug our kids, keep them fed and housed and do our best. And, let’s help others who are not so lucky.