Archive - 2011
February 22nd
Deficit Spending
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 02/22/2011 - 07:40After college, I moved to New York City and I learned about how devastating deficit spending can really be. Yet it isn’t the deficits that show up on the financial statements there are the real devastating deficits. The more significant deficits are the ones that get hidden from the balance sheets.
The most obvious to me at the time were the 'deferred maintenance’ deficits. These were times when the city, or other institutions, deferred spending necessary to maintain the infrastructure. The money still needed to be spent, and in the end, the costs were often much greater than they otherwise would have been. It’s the old “stitch in time saves nine” issue. Deferred maintenance is saying we can’t afford the stitch right now, so we’ll defer it until we can afford nine stitches later.
Yet there are even more expensive and more deeply hidden deficits. Failing to care for infrastructure adds up quickly. Failing to care for ones citizens adds up even more quickly.
As I work in a community health center, I see this more and more. People who have not had access to health care and defer maintenance of their own bodies, until it is an emergency. If you can’t afford a trip to the doctor or dentist, you will put off dealing with what could often be treated inexpensively until it becomes much more expensive.
This is where the latest proposed cuts by Republicans in the House of Representatives is penny wise and pound foolish. In cutting funding that addresses people’s health issues when they are small and inexpensive, they are increasing the health care deficit that we will have to face when people go to the emergency room. It is cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face.
The same applies to cuts in education, service programs, and particularly Planned Parenthood. As I’ve been getting more acquainted with the health issues of expectant mothers and then their newborns, I have come to recognize what a great value Planned Parenthood and related organizations are in making sure that mothers get the treatment they need early on in the pregnancy so that costs of delivery and early care can be reduced.
The United States has a much higher infant mortality rate that many other countries, and it is because programs like Planned Parenthood are not properly funded. Those who are especially concerned about the rights of the unborn probably have the greatest responsibility to support organizations like planned parenthood if they are interested in seeing the number of babies that die in our country each year decrease.
Unfortunately, too often, people look just at the headline and just at the bottom line on the balance sheet. They don’t look at reducing the real deficits.
February 21st
Music Monday - @kevinmasch
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 02/21/2011 - 07:32I've probably been reading the news too much recently, and I am weary. I followed the pro-democracy demonstrations in the Middle East, mourned the martyrs, rejoiced at victories and shared with everyone the uncertainty of the days to come.
I've read about the battles in Washinton over the budget and the continuing resolution, the reckless cuts being proposed and the threat of shutting down the government if the cuts do not pass the Senate and get signed by the President. I've read about the battle in Wisconsin about whether or not public employees should have the same rights of collective bargaining as everyone else. All of the unrest leaves me weary.
So, as I thumbed through the SonicBids submissions to the Orient Lodge Music Review, I tried to find sometime matching the times.
Kevin Masch's describes himself as "a classic, American Roots musician in a proud tradition that goes back to before Woody Guthrie"
Seems like we need a little Woody Guthrie now, and Steve Earle's words echo in my ears:
So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
I don't suspect Kevin has "This Machine Kills Fascists" inscribed on his guitar. Kevin has a different sort of sound. Yet Kevin, like many of the great roots musicians get back to the basics of life, love, death, traveling, trying to find home.
The commentary about one of his songs on YouTube starts:
Kevin's music is perfect for the music lover or the background music lover. Just try this, play this video, open up another tag (no music or audio needed to go to other site), and surf the internet... before you know it you will feel as if you are in your own movie with a sound track playing while you blog or are reading about everyday life
Yeah. I've got that song playing as I write this blog post, it does take me back to everyday life. The life of people struggling to get by, to find their way home.
Unfortunately, Youtube says that the embedding the video has been disabled at the user's request, so I can't share it here. Instead, go to Kevin's website, poke around, and see what you can find.
Instead, I'll end off with Christmas Time in Washington:
February 20th
Imperfect
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 02/20/2011 - 17:57"Do we have to listen to the news?" Fiona asked as we headed home after a playdate. It is a common question in the car. I like to listen to the news in the car when I get a chance, but Fiona isn't all that interested. Normally, I try to listen to the news for a few minutes and then engage her in a discussion about what was on.
The story that was just starting was Learning To Embrace Mess And Chaos Through Yoga about Claire Dederer and her new book, Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses. She spoke about trying to be the perfect Seattle Mom.
"You had to eat organic food, breastfeed your baby – well, at least 'til it could talk. [You had to] carry your child in a sling; strollers were completely banned."
The NPR story goes on to say, "yoga was part of the plan: Do the poses and become a perfect, calm, contented mother." To me, it sounded a bit like the Stepford Ashram. The author talked about measuring up against her own mother in an effort to provide the best possible upbringing for her children. Then, it took a much needed twist.
Dederer says,
What I found instead was that I would sort of fall down and be a mess and sweat ... and that it was fine. And so yoga really ended up teaching me about loosening up and getting away from some of this perfectionism
This is what resonated with me, trying to get in touch with my own imperfect. Catholics go to confession as part of staying in touch with their imperfection. Others focus on human's sinfulness as part of their theology, again returning to imperfection.
Yet these days, it seems as if we are further and further from being able to admit our own shortcomings. Politicians only seem to be able to admit their shortcomings when forced to through some scandal. Friends post Facebook statuses about how great everything is, when really it isn't all that great. Many of the bloggers I see online seem to fall into the same thing. The image is reenforced on television when the only place for shortcomings is for the villian or to provide a comic interlude.
So, how can we confront our own shortcomings? Perhaps falling down and being a sweaty mess is part of it. Admitting that we aren't always charitable to the people around us may be part of it. Letting go of the idea that we have to offer better opportunities to our children than others do may be part of it. I know I'm not perfect. I don't always show the kindness I should to the people around us.
On the other hand, presenting our imperfections may actually be part of providing our children with the opportunities they need. It can bring humor and humanity.
It would be very interesting to see how our political dialogs would change if they were based on a recognition of our common imperfections. Perhaps, it would move us past a condescending, "There, but for the grace of God go I" to a deeper understanding that the Governor of Wisconsin and a homeless man really aren't very different.
February 19th
Partnership for a Compassion Free America
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 02/19/2011 - 16:08"I'm proud of this moment," a relaxed and confident Boehner said late Friday. "This is diving off the 50-foot diving board your first dive."
From The education of John Boehner
So, today, the House of Representatives cut vital portions of the safety net while making sure that the Army could continue to sponsor Nascar racers. (See Gail Collin's Op-Ed, Sacred Cows, Angry Birds for more on this.)
As a person who works at a community health center, and sees the jobs that it creates, for medical providers, and for that matter, construction workers building new health care facilities, and as a person that has gotten to know the stories of vision, limb, and even lives saved, I can only see Boehner's proud moment of jumping off a 50-foot diving board as reckless.
It reminds me of the famous Public Service Announcement from the Partnership for a Drug Free America in 1989:
February 18th
The Ice Cream Community Reinvestment Foundation
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 02/18/2011 - 06:54It started off a bit strange. I was at a some sort of business conference with a friend. He was trying to buy a portfolio of mortgages. He worked the crowd trying to find the seller and the information he needed. Finally, he found it and passed it off to me. It was in a spreadsheet on a thumbdrive. Years ago, I used to look at spreadsheets like this, so I plugged the thumbdrive into my laptop and started analyzing the mortgages.
Most of them looked pretty straight forward, but, as is often the case, and I suspect even more frequently these days, there were some 'underperforming mortgages', that is mortgages behind in payments and likely to default.
I looked a little more closely. These were mortgages of people and businesses in my community. It was then that the idea struck me. We should sell these mortgages to a local ice cream shop. They would use some of the profits from ice cream sales to pay down and retire the under performing mortgages. Since they would be the mortgage holders, it would help out with their investments as well. Sort of like Kiva meets Newman's Own at Ashley's Ice Cream shop.
It all made perfect sense. Now, all I needed to do was to speak with a few friends from a previous life of mine as a technologist working with mortgages on Wall Street with some of my new friends working at community health centers. The idea would be a little bit outside of the core competencies of each group of friends, but together they cut put together a good team of people to make this happen.
Then, the cat jumped on the bed. I rolled over and saw that it was 5:17 AM. It was warm under the covers, but I knew I needed to get up and take care of the animals. Nonetheless, the idea from the dream stuck with me. Could we create an Ice Cream Community Reinvestment Foundation? I figured the best approach would be to write down the dream and send an email to some friends for their thoughts. If the idea does manage to stand up on its own, it is likely to change shape a bit, but that is where my friends can help out the most. What doe you think? Can ice cream help solve the mortgage crisis?
