Are Americans the Chosen?

I am not the chosen! Are we? Robert R. Odle, Ph.D. an aspiring good citizen of the earth

… are we the chosen? ....

I am not the chosen.  Remember in the old testament the Jews declared they were the chosen of God.  The  Islamic religion, I think has a similar story as do many religions of the world.

Although, we say it differently, when we talk about our country, when we say we are the greatest country on the earth, aren't we saying we are the chosen.  We often say it is our destiny, our responsibility, to lead the world.  

Manifest Destiny

Back in the day, when we were settling the west, we came up with the concept of Manifest Destiny which was a widely held belief in the United States that American settlers were destined to expand throughout the continent. We thought our people and institutions were more virtuous than those people living in the West (or anywhere else for that matter) and therefore it was own mission to redeem and remake the west in the image of ourselves. Historian Frederick Merk says this concept was born out of "a sense of mission to redeem the Old World by high example ... generated by the potentialities of a new earth for building a new heaven".  Sounds a lot like we believed we were the chosen people, doesn't it.
Well, there were two general schools of thought on how we should pursue our  Manifest Destiny.  One school justified using the "gun" to realize our Manifest Destiny and to destroy whoever stood in the way, mostly Native Americans, but a few Mexicans also had to die. The other school of thought was that we should lead by democratic example instead of by conquest. WE know how it played out.

manifest destiny syndrome ...

Believing We Are the Chosen affects our Judgement

I think we still have the Manifest Destiny syndrome.  When we believe we are the chosen, we look at what we are best at and decide' that is what must be important.  For instance, without a doubt we in America are the best at making money, making a profit.  If you are a shareholder then our ability to make a profit in this country is very important.  If we believe we are not the chosen, we might ask ourselves what is important, what are our values, and then ask ourselves how are we doing living up to our values. For example, we might decide our most important value is taking care of the weak in our society and then act accordingly.

I don't this is a conversation we have had for a long time in America.  We need to ask ourselves not what we are good at, but what do we want to be good at. For instance, we are good at war, putting people in prison, and making profits.  I wish we could be good at helping the homeless have homes, helping those without medical care get the help they need, and helping children without a stable home life have such a life.  When I visit another country, I wish I could say to them America has found a way to use our wealth to make the lives of all its people, and even those visiting (legal or not), better.  If I had to chose, I would chose for my country to be known as a compassionate country instead of a country with a great military.

China has a Plan! Why doesn't America have a plan for ending poverty?

China has a plan! Why doesn't America have a plan for ending poverty? Robert R. Odle, Ph.D. an aspiring good citizen of the earth

… share or do without ....

My mom had a simple rule about eating or drinking anything around strangers or friends.  Either share what you have or do without it until they leave.  She also told us not to leave money or anything else lying around because in tempting someone else we put in part responsible for their downfall. I was thinking I never remember sharing our meals with strangers, but perhaps no one ever felt like a stranger after we shared a meal with them. It was part of the respect my mom gave to all people and doing what she could to help them while not being judgmental.

Poor people are strangers to most Americans.  We don’t know them, we make up stories about what they are like, or not like.  We talk about their willingness to work or not work like we had spent the day with a representative group of them while we failed to get them out of their proverbial rocking chair.  But, mostly, we don’t know poor people.  I guess we can make up stories about them and begin to hate them, or we can be indifferent, or we can imagine they are not too different than us and have compassion for their plight.  I’m guessing, but I suspect there are no poor people among my precious few readers of this blog.  Even in the digital world, we don’t know them.

I don’t know if you realize that China has lifted more people out of poverty than any other country in the history of the world.  No, it wasn’t an accident, but a deliberate policy backed up by actions. Of course, poverty depends to some extent where you draw the line in the sand and say below this income level you are poor.   Here I will just define it as those because of circumstances or their culture that are unlikely to make significant improvement in their income, health or general well-being in their life time.  That more or less fits many, if not most, of the bottom 40% of the people in our country.  Upward mobility is mostly a thing of the past. Our generation has seen more downward mobility.

Deliberate Action, the suffocating mud of poverty

Poverty is not a magical spell that falls over someone.  It comes from being taught to see life in a certain way, by your parents or other adults, when you are a child combined with there being very little resources available to the poor person to change their path. Poverty is a condition of one’s physical reality combined with a lack of life skills on how to struggle against the physical condition one finds one self in.

Most people who know my roots would say I grew up in poverty.  I would describe those first twenty years of life as feeling like I was walking in a ditch filled with thick mud that at times was waist deep as my richer friends walked along a paved road parallel with my ditch.  I saw my dad fall and get pulled down into that mud.  I saw my mom learn to survive in the mud and saw my brother rail against mud until it pulled him under.  Ironically,  of the three people I know that made it out of the neighborhood, two of them followed me into metallurgy at college.  Seeing my dad pulled down by the thick mud that eventually strangled him, gave me that little push to help me get free -- as if his last push propelled me out while pushing him too far below the surface to survive. My mom had given me a lot of the skills to survive on the street (double meaning) when I did get my break.

It was not an accident that I got out.  My parents and others took deliberate actions to push me up and out of poverty.  Sadly, I’ve been afraid of the mud of poverty my entire life and have made a lot of bad decisions because of that fear that has brought me back to that muddy river more than once.

America Can End Poverty, by deliberate actions

America could end poverty in one or two generations, or we can let it continue to expand.  
It’s always either expanding as it is in this country or shrinking like it is in China.  For practical purposes, the Scandinavian countries, many countries in Europe, and Australia have essentially eliminated poverty as we know it. China is probably less than a generation away from eliminating poverty -- and yes, the wheels could still come off, but they are trying. I may not agree with how these countries eliminated poverty, but it is hard to argue with the their results. Beyond the scope of this document, but look at what the Gates foundation is doing to eliminate poverty, or Google's ambition to bring Internet to everyone on the planet (less poverty).

Practical Steps

To help people get out of poverty, America can give these people a helping hand in several obvious ways (and all of them help the entire country--duh):

1. Public transportation.  Yes, public transportation helps the poor, who are walking in the mud, more than it helps those walking down (or driving down) the paved roads of middle income America.  Most of the Western World has better public transportation than we have.  I have seen worse public transportation  in my travels in Peru, but right off hand I can’t remember any others.  
1. High Speed Trains.  China is building more high speed trains (200 mph) than the rest of the world put together. Trains will soon be criss-crossing their entire country.  Rates will be subsidized.  What a wonderful gift they are giving to their poor.  What an example for America. Even Russia is building high speed trains. And, of course, so is much of Europe.
2. Infrastructure. Subways, bus stations, good roads, bridges, buses, shuttles, etc.  Yea we know how to do it.  We just don’t.  Instead we watch it crumble and yes, it will affect all of us as our bridges start crumbling into the sea, but the poor will be hurt more since few of their jobs can be done from home, etc. And poor roads are already impacting the cost of good and services transported over them.
3. Internet Access and Infrastructure.  To lift the poor out of poverty, we have to give them access to the Internet on the same level as the privileged, which will end up being free internet and devices for all people, much like we consider food. With information/knowledge comes power and leverage, and cooperation among the poor. Think how FB could be used to help organize and help the poor.
4. And yes, it will cost money.  Nothing good comes free.  The most straightforward way to fund transportation and infrasture  is raising the gasoline tax about 10 cents a gallon. Of course, we probably can and will make it more complicated.
2. Childcare.  If you are a single mom in poverty, just having a job and transportation doesn’t mean you can just leave your kids and go to work. Instead we need:
1. Childcare centers in and around places of work.
2. Childcare centers in the middle of neighborhoods of poverty.
3. Childcare run by the Peace Corp for America (more below) and by poor people for other poor people.
4. And yes, this has to be paid for.  The Walmarts of the world need to step up to the plate as well as the state and local governments.  I’m guessing the federal government has their heads too far up their ass to be much help.
3. Education and Training.
1. For the poor, let’s make it a job to become educated and trained.  Your level of help from Uncle Sam depends on how well you are doing in improving yourself … yes, it is for them and it is for America.  
2. Free public education through a four year degree for everyone.  Most of the Western World are already doing this … and yes, America is being left behind.  We will not be leading the world in anything as those graduating college and even high school continues to decline.  And no, the poor are not going to be able or willing to go on college loans. Our country is already been strangled by college loans, now greater than credit card debt, and limited job opportunities to pay back the loans. (Note, the first time home-owner has disappeared from the market place, guess why? Part of the problem is that they are trying to pay off massive school loans ... less new houses, less jobs, etc. I digress.)
3. As the number of jobs decline, we are going to have to reward and pay people for tasks that used to fall under the umbrella of charity.  Why, because we need jobs and helping our fellow man is the most important job of all.
4. Peace Corps for America
1. It is sad, but much of America is now like a third world country, except worse, they have lots of guns.  They need help from the outside above a policeman that shakes them down periodically. We have a military that goes into the rest of the world to try to rebuild countries and the Peace Corp that tries to bring help to the poor in other countries.  Why not a nationally funded Peace Corp to help lift our poor out of poverty.  There are many places they could help America:
1. In our projects/slums
1. Child and old people babysit and teach.  Run kindergartens, after school programs.
2. Teach life skills.  Planning and prioritizing expenditures.  Saving.  Writing resumes.  
3. Help the homeless.  Run soup kitchens.  Build shelters.  Organize car pooling.
4. Give people in poverty a reason to live and hope instead of doing drugs and gangs.
5. Help those that are addicted to address those emotional problems that are driving them to drugs in the first place.  Rehab one on one.
2. In our disadvantaged schools
1. Tutoring
2. Running clubs
3. Co-teaching, Para teachers
2. Require Americans to give a couple of years of their life in serving in the Peace Corps for America.
1. This helps not only the poor, but it would give a whole generation of Americans face time with those less fortunate.  They won’t have to make up stories about what it is like to be poor.  When our government comes out with programs built on stories that are not true, or that do not address core problems, we will know.
2. the Peace Corps also gives us a way to employ an unlimited number of people that would otherwise be on welfare.  Of course, the Peace Corps has to pay more than welfare, but hopefully it will come to mean much more than just getting a check.
3. This will help build character that is so sorely lacking in our country.  We are all about ourselves, power and control.  Developing a little national humility in facing our problems, accepting that it is US and not THEM with a problem could really be good for us.  Could we become that shining light on a hill again?
5. How do we pay for all of this .. and more?
1. Gasoline tax increase.
2. Carbon tax to raise money for the above and to push us gently toward renewable energy sources.
3. A progressive capital gains tax.
4. Inheritance tax.
5. Reduce our military footprint.  Influence the world with how we take care of our weakest.

Sadly, we have not admitted we have a problem.  We still believe that as long as we have the highest GNP and the strongest army, we are doing well. But, for those of us that judge our country not on how well we make money but how well we help the weakest among us, there is real cause for concern.  Like our infrastructure, our country moral fiber is corroding at its foundation.  We are full of blame and our own importance and unwilling to help the growing masses of people floundering in the mud of poverty.

Automation, Our Fate Was Predicted in the Eighties by Robert R. Odle, Ph.D.

Automation, the end of Work, Heaven or Hell we already chose …. Robert R. Odle, Ph.D. an aspiring good citizen of the earth

At the airport restaurant in Philly this morning, I discovered a very slick Ipad ordering system. I had no problem with ordering two eggs over easy and picking bacon as my side order. The card swipe system was behind and off to the side, colored black on a black counter. I might have found it, but the waitress jumped in. I wanted to do it on my own.

I interviewed the waitress. She said a lot of people need help and for now the system slows her down. She said a lot of people double order stuff because they don't know what the meal includes. I didn't know I got potatoes. Fair enough. She said people have problems finding the card swipe. Duh.

There's no way to call somebody on the system to let them know when you want to get your coffee refilled, for example. Minor functionality enhancement required.

As usual the developers need to talk to the waitress to address some issues, but this is the future. Each waitress is now handling 20 stations but help each other out and split tips. I can easily imagine the number of stations going up and the number of waitresses going down as the system improves and customers learn. I have a few ideas on that.

Another example of automation destroying jobs faster than they can be created. This morning I gave money to a guy on the corner. His sign said, I need help. I talked with him. He said he audits hotels in the evening, but people are always around that work cheaper and computers are doing most of the work anyway. He's down to two days a week and can't pay his bills. So during the days, he stands on a busy corner trying to keep his family together.

As automation destroys jobs, what is society's responsibility to these people?  In the eighties  Jeremy Rifkin predicted in The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force. He predicted automation would start destroying jobs faster than they could be created.  He did not see outsourcing coming a big factor as it did, but he nailed the ever accelerating impact of automation on job destruction.  He say two possible outcomes as automation destroyed jobs:

1. We would fight over remaining jobs putting downward pressure on wages and form a subclass of Americans living below the poverty level in ever larger numbers while the output of factories were systematically reduced as the number of customers/workers declined.
2. We shared jobs (and/or distributed the wealth), we had more leisure time and factories stayed near full capacity. This view actually requires compassion and caring for those whose jobs are threatened.

He guessed we would select Option #1 since this is the primitive reaction that requires no thought and no change in quaker-like view of how we see work.  Sad, but he was right.

Homelessness and Compassion by Robert R. Odle, Ph.D.

Homelessness … and compassion Robert R. Odle, Ph.D. an aspiring good citizen of the earth

… tent city in Elkton ....

There are about 700,000 homeless people in America according to this video.  About half of these people have mental illness.  They are a very low priority in our country and as long as they stay out of the way, we are content as a society to let them live like stray dogs on the edge of our prosperity.  This morning at tennis, I discovered there is a tent city with about 200 tents at Marina park.   It is one of five tent cities I was told by the volunteer there bringing in coffee and pancakes.  She told me there were about 15,000 homeless in Elkton, but that is really hard to believe since that is about the size of the “regular people”.  My wife tells me Cecil County has one of the largest populations of kids that get free and reduced lunches in Maryland.  

The biggest cause of homelessness is poverty.  A lack of resources available to care for the poor. Assuming these people never got better it would cost about $20 billion a year to cloth and house 750,000 people.  The funds used in the second Iraq war could care for them for about 50 years.   A 20% reduction in Military Aid to Israel or a 0.1% tax on earnings of the top 20% of the wealthiest in this country could take care of them forever.  But, these homeless people are not that important.  After all, we do let them get the scraps from the dumpsters.   I was told the city only burned down tent city one time, but I don’t know if that is true or not.  Not that we would make an official record of that type of activity … and what do the homeless people know.

I was told about a “Brother John?” that works at Walmart as a greeter that helps the homeless in Elkton.  He lives on his social security and uses his entire Walmart earnings buying blankets, food and basic supplies for the homeless in tent city.  Does anyone know of this man?  Can there be someone like that among us?

So, am I the only one in this country that wonders how we can spend $600 billion a year on the military (more than everyone else combined) and not 0.3% of that amount caring for the homeless? Does that make us the GREATEST COUNTRY in the world?

Compassion for our Dog Friends by Odle

Compassion for our Dog Friends Robert R. Odle, Ph.D. an aspiring good citizen of the earth

… a good deed never goes unpunished ....

After tennis today, this guy was hanging out by the dumpster that I nicknamed Blondie.  With every car that came down the gravel road, he would run from the dumpster out into the road to look at the car.  With everyone that got out to play tennis, he would run over see if they belonged to him, and finding they didn’t he would must his most fierce bark and warn everyone that someone was coming.

He had obviously missed a few meals, so I went to the local pet store and got him some food.  I offered him some moist dog for small dogs that came out of a bag.  He didn’t like that so I offered him some canned mighty dog.  He didn’t like that, so I thought he might be thirsty.  I went to my trunk to get a bowl and some water.  When I came back, he was gone.  He was in the back of my car,up in the window.  It was hot and turned on the air conditioner for him. I called Amy and we discussed me bringing him home.  The big problem we have with adopting a small dog is Ashton, a 26 pound Jack Russell.  He has hurt a small dog badly and has killed a large Racoon and many other not so small animals.  His instincts kick in around small animals, especially one that growl and bark at him.  Bungalow, our small half-jack Russell, who is now 24 pounds, survived puppyhood because we used a shock collar on Ashton to keep him from killing Bungalow.  Even with that effort, Bungalow has some scars from Ashton’s teeth tearing his flesh.  They are great friends now and I suspect that Bungalow would follow Ashton’s lead.  We decided we just weren’t going there.

Well, looked on my phone and drove down to Chesapeake City to find out the shelter there is no longer in business. Then I drove to the SPCA in Delaware on Highway 7.  They said sure they can help and gave me a phone number to call.  I called, told the truth about where Blondie got into my car.  They told me he was a Maryland dog so they couldn’t help.  I opened the door, and Blondie got out.  I want inside and told a young man there that was a stray dog in their parking lot.

He came out and was trying to catch the dog as I started to drive away.  About then, his boss came running out and intercepted me as I drove out their winding drive way.  He ran in front of me, put his hands on his fists on his hips, spread his feet wide like he was preparing for battle.  I stopped, rolled down my window.  He came around and said “you can’t leave your dog here”.  

I said, “he’s not my dog”.

“You brought him here.”

“I didn’t ask him to get in my car.”

“You need to call Maryland, Kent County, cause he’s a Maryland dog.” Kent County I am guessing is two or three hours away, although I really don't know where it is.

“Looks to me like you need to call Maryland.”

“I’m not going to let you leave here.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“I’m not going to let you leave.”

“Well, I recommend you get some help.  I would suggest you call the police for backup.”

While he was thinking about that, I popped the clutch went to the right so he wouldn’t be able to get his foolish ass in front of my car and drove off as he ran after my car repeating my license plate number.  Of course, I had given my name and phone number to the number they told me to call.  So, I wonder what happens next, if anything.

Blondie really looked stressed out when I left.  Breathing hard and scared. I wanted what was best for Blondie, but felt I was out of options.  I judged the young man that I had first talked to had compassion and wouldn’t let rules stand in his way of helping Blondie.  I came home a little stressed out with the encounter with the hulk, not that I was afraid of him, but irritated that he was treating me like I was the bad guy.  

 

Free needle for drugs is good by Robert R. Odle.

Free Needles for Drugs is Good Robert R. Odle, Ph.D. an aspiring good citizen of the earth

..when is it okay to support what you are against?...

So, the Indiana governor decided to give a needle exchange in which the government would exchange clean needles for needles already used to inject heroin into a drug users veins. What motivated this action … HIV spreading throughout the drug community.  Of course, there is the fear that it will spread from the drug community to the non-drug community.

So, from a practical view it makes sense:  Doing what needs to be done to stop the spread of HIV.

What about from a moral point of view? Should we be doing anything to help someone use drugs.  But, that really is not the situation we are presented with … the drug user is not asking us for a clean needle.  When they need a hit, they are going to use whatever they can get their hands on.  We are asking them to use a clean needle, for the sake of us, not just them.  Our child could be making love to a person only a few persons removed from a drug user, protection be damned if the situation goes sideways.

Actually, give a user a needle is not enough … it does not go far enough.  Our current policy is based upon a war on people, mostly black people, not drugs.  A person that becomes a drug user already has problems before the first drug goes down his throat or up his arm.  We are looking at a person, probably a teenager, that is not well adjusted.  It is someone that is struggling with life, someone that does not belong to any group unless it is his drug group.  What ever other groups he has will slowly dissolve as his/her habit grows.  They go to a place far beyond help, far beyond our compassion.  They go to a place where we do not understand them, they no longer trust or understand us.  They know we no longer understand them.  Nothing proves to them that we understand them less than our desire to punish them and put them in prison for ending up addicted.  Few plot the road to addiction and instead they just find themselves there one day craving their next hit, sick as a dog as they start into withdrawal, desperate for one more small hit so they can feel normal.  And we tell them, just say “no”.

If we want to do this right, we give them more than needles.  We open our arms and say we want to help them.  Help them go through withdrawal.  Not just watch them but provide them with a medical staff to monitor their vital signs.  And after the drugs are out of their system, we help them with years of therapy, yes years of therapy, to address what got them there in the first place.  We help them get the training and education they need to survive in this world, like we should with all young people. And we love them and have compassion for them when they fall on their face a few times in their struggle to be free of their demons.

Fracking could be good for Poland by Robert R. Odle, Ph.D.

Fracking can be good for the environment Robert R. Odle, Ph.D. an aspiring good citizen of the earth

..when is fracking good...

'The air is stinking, it’s dirty': the fight against pollution in Kraków

As residents in the historic Polish city complain of coughs and nosebleeds a new ban on the burning of wood and coal in homes could have unprecedented repercussions for the country’s economy, and its health.

Protesters on an anti-smog march in Kraków call for cleaner air. Photograph: Kraków Smog Alert

With a neatly trimmed moustache and white doctor’s coat, Dr Krzysztof Czarnobilski, head of internal medicine and elder care at Kraków’s MSWiA Hospital, speaks nervously, his English formal and stilted. His message, though, couldn’t be clearer. The filthy air in Poland’s most picturesque city is making his elderly patients sick, shortening their lives and increasing their isolation. The pollution, he says, worsens cognitive and emotional problems such as dementia and depression, and exacerbates breathing and circulatory disorders.

From where we sit in America, we often complain about the evils of fracking.  Fracking is blamed for more earthquakes, polluted water, smelly air, etc.  Some of it is probably true, some of it is just in people’s head.  People are usually for or against it.  The truth is that it probably can be done responsibly with minimal risk and bad effective, or it can be done irresponsibly.  The big boys, with a lot of assets on the line, like Exxon are more likely to be careful, not because they are necessarily the good guys (or bad guys), but because they have a lot to lose.

But, here is the thing .. Exxon et al has the fracking technology to switch Europe from a coal burning society to a natural gas burning society.  Poland has some good reserves.  So, Poland can chose to keep choking on coal fumes with old people dying from air pollution … and that is what they have chosen for the most part in Europe.  Fracking is bad per Europe.  Green energy like wind and solar is good, but expensive.  They don’t have money for green energy so the suck up the fumes from coal.

The small economic boom in America is in part due to fracking and low cost energy.  Low cost gasoline and natural gas prices the world over, that is from fracking, no doubt.  Many of the jobs created in the U.S. recently and many more to be created are from fracking.  Many secondary jobs will spring up to support the jobs in oil and chemicals.  The boom will probably last a decade or more.

So, Europe has decided that fracking in bad.  Horrible air pollution in Kraków is one result.  Less wealth coming into Poland is another consequence.  They could chose to be like America with cleaner air and with more money coming in to line the coffers of the rich. 

Of course, I don't need to mention how much clean natural is than coal ... and that fracking would produce plenty of natural gas for Poland and they could stop burnin dirty coal ... and stop being in debt to Russia and dependent on Mother Russia.

I keep imaging there is this magical kingdom that makes logical decisions and it benefits all the people of the kingdom.