Thursday, June 7, 2012

Robert Schrank Obituary


Robert Schrank, 
Center Moriches, NY  11934
October 19, 1917 – 
June 7, 2012

Robert Schrank, Ph.D., a prominent labor leader in the 1930s-1950s, former City Commissioner under Mayor Lindsay and renowned expert at The Ford Foundation on labor negotiations and workplace issues, died on Thursday, June 7, 2012, in Center Moriches, NY, at the age of 94.

From young political activist and union leader to foundation professional and management consultant for global corporations, Schrank lived a life based on empathy and principles for workers and workplace issues; and, as a union activist, was involved in some of the major political and social upheavals of the twentieth century.

In one of his two books, Wasn’t That a Time? Growing Up Radical and Red in America, Schrank described the life events of his role in the rise of industrial unions in the 1930s and 1940s.  He was part of the radical world of true believers, elected President of the local 402 of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) at a young age.  During his time as president of the local, membership grew by leaps and bounds as the union pursued a policy emphasizing the class struggle for workers.

Schrank was a rebel in the union landscape, being expelled three times from union office for stances he took supporting workers in opposition to some ideas within the union leadership.  In a landmark First Amendment case (Schrank vs. Brown) the State Supreme Court of New York twice returned him to membership.  Convinced by the early 1950s of the failure of socialism in the Soviet Union; he, however, remained faithful to the desires and needs of the rank and file working people throughout the remainder of his own working and personal life. 

One of Schrank’s most memorable union experiences was organizing a rare general strike in 1945 in Stamford, Connecticut.  An opening shot in the post-World War II anti-union environment was fired by the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company, which simply refused to bargain, even though the IAM local had been certified as the workers’ bargaining agenda by the National Labor Relations Board.  After a long strike, Schrank rallied other union support for Yale & Towne workers by successfully organizing a rare general strike that shut down the city for an entire day leading to the end of the long IAM strike.  Later, as a union organizer, in 1954, Schrank spent the longest, coldest winter of his life working to reorganize and restore the Montana local of the Mine Mill and Smelter Workers’ Union.

Following his union organizing days, Schrank became a plant manager for a short time before becoming a Director in Mobilization for Youth, one of the country’s newest, and most successful manpower programs for troubled youth in New York City.  Schrank later became Assistant Commissioner for the City of New York under Mayor Lindsay, responsible for the operation of the city’s manpower programs. This job was not without controversy as a congressman from the Bronx had attacked Schrank as a radical and called on any federal funds for the city of New York be withheld until Schrank was discharged.  Mayor Lindsay supported Schrank saying that he knew Schrank and that he was hired for the record of his achievements, not his politics, and that was what the city needed.  

As a Project Specialist at The Ford Foundation from the 1960s through 1980, Schrank’s numerous projects were centered on workplace issues.  Schrank was instrumental in organizing a “Workers Exchange.”  The idea of the exchange was to have workers from a particular industry to become visiting, working employees, in plants that were doing experiments in alternative work organizations.  The exchanges that took place involved auto workers from Detroit to Saab in Sweden, nurses from California to the National Health Service in England, longshoremen from San Francisco to Rotterdam, and policemen from Hartford, Connecticut to London and Amsterdam.  The results of these exchanges were helpful in thinking about how work can be reorganized, and how that reorganization can, and needs to, involve the workers in the organization.

Schrank wrote about his extraordinary and varied work experiences from skilled machinist to union leader to NYC Commissioner to Ford Foundation professional in his first book, Ten Thousand Working Days.  Schrank’s broad work experience provided a realistic basis for a personal and social portrayal of work, its pain and pleasures, its frustrations and satisfactions.  His life’s professional narrative served a special purpose by bringing together in the context of his own work experience the sociology and psychology of work and what really happens on the job.  His writings were almost always from the point of view of the rank and file, whether describing his role in the leadership of the New York State Machinists union or as a corporate consultant.

Robert Schrank was born October 19, 1917, into a New York City immigrant family in the Bronx that was part of New York’s large German socialist community, a community of political and intellectual individuals. At fourteen, he left school and was sent off to work.  It was not until his forties that he entered Brooklyn College and received a bachelor’s degree, going on in later years to earn his Masters and Ph.D. in the sociology of work.

After retiring from The Ford Foundation, Schrank moved full-time with his wife, Kathleen Gunderson, to their home on Moriches Bay in Center Moriches, NY, where he treasured the nature and beauty of the area.  He spent many years sailing the waters off Long Island, organized and led efforts to turn the 263-acre “Havens Estate” into what is now the Terrell River County Park Preserve.  The skills he learned as a machinist were used to build many finely crafted pieces of antique furniture for his dear friends and family.  Their home was often filled with the same enjoying evenings of deep discussions along with much merriment and singing. 

In his retirement, Bob Schrank continued to be involved with issues related to working people consulting to major corporations and at Standard-Knapp, Inc., serving from 1985-2011 as their longest Outside Director.  Bob received many awards over his life, but the most important award he received was a Lifetime Contribution to Social Justice for Working People award presented to him in 2008 from The Center for Study of Working Class Life, Stony Brook University.

Dr. Schrank is survived by his loving best friend and wife, Kathleen Gunderson; daughter Elizabeth Bessin of Santa Fe, New Mexico; son Fredrick (Barbara) of Madison, WI; granddaughter Amrita Bessin (Robert Cohen) of Santa Monica, CA; grandson, Theo Bessin of San Francisco, CA; granddaughter Allie Schrank of Madison, WI, great-grandson Soren Cohen of Santa Monica, CA and many beloved lifelong friends.





Tuesday, May 29, 2012

You Want to Talk Greed?

Yeah I’m still here about to get pissed off about this latest front page lead story of the NY Times. “U.S. WINDS DOWN LONGER BENEFITS FOR THE JOBLESS. Checks stopping early. Hundreds of thousands of out of work Americans are about to see their final checks.  Then how they manage to survives is their little own business. If you jump over to the Business Section of the paper you’ll find a different story. 
Here a Mr. Picard is paying off for the Trustee ($850 an hour) How can we believe this shit? On the one hand we don’t have a nickel for a guy who has been out of a job and there don’t seem to be any and a guy who is making $850 an hour just recovering stolen money. Don’t you find something wrong with this picture?
Of course you do. Its just unfair and it continues to play out in this land of unfettered capitalism. And until my last breath I’m keeping carping away at it.

Monday, May 28, 2012

How do we say Goodbye to the Good fight?


My whole family surrounds me with love. They're my son, my daughter, my daughter in law, she’s putting all my old pictures together so that a friend In New Haven can make something out of them. All this surrounding love and caring. Here comes the Oxygen pump. I’m not sure whether it does anything. But what the hell. All this stuff they're surrounding me with is trying it’s darndest to keep me going. Oh, what difference does it make. I’m just trying to finish out me run. My dear son is making sure that the Stereo is working as I do love having Beethoven, Sibelius, Wagner, Chopin, and yes Hank Williams at my side. Hank was a musical genius whose beautiful melodies just seem to drop out of his heart. Haunting lyrics and melody, “I’m So Lonesome I could Cry.” Nothing expresses the loneliness of the American West as this song.

My life. Oh what a run it was. Look I was born of working class family right after the Russian Revolution Our family was fiercely devoted to the objectives of the working class. They believed those that produced the goods had first choice to them. The idol ruling class who owned the mines the mills,the places where things were made, where represented by the Czar and his entourage. So when the Russian workers revolted against that whole form of tyranny we were like the average New England fishermen who was glad to see the Brits leave our shores. That’s why we were so happy to see the defeat of the Russian Hierarchy and its blood sucker entourage. Just one more victory for working people.

(Just before I started to write this piece my son is reading me an article from the Times on the attacks against the unions in Wisconsin. He wants to know, What are these crazy people thinking. They have there supply and demand Market Capitalism “Don’t they realize that they are destroying their own system? “Yes Fred, they are self destructing because they are devils own victims of greed.  “So Dad what’s to become of us?”   Ahaa That my dear man depends on what you and your fellow citizens do about it”  In Newtonian  Physics there is a law. “Every action has an  equal reaction.”  We need to really count on that law for people in Wisconsin and other states to  get out there and fight back.

I was very fortunate in my life to have been in every struggle for a fight back better world.

1.Starting with the right to organize.  We won that with the passage of the Wagner Act. That guaranteed the fights of workers to organize and bargain collectively for their members, It meant that thousands of assembly line workers now had the right join a union. We thought of it as a revolution. No longer would  the mass production industries to be excused from the workers right to organize and have a say about the conditions they worked under. THAT IS NOW UNDER ATTACK IN WISCONSIN - ALREADY COLLECTIVE BARGAINING HAS BEEN STRIPPED IN WI FROM STATE AND MUNICIPAL WORKERS. My Daughter-in-Law, Barbara, told me, “WALKER’S TACTIC - DIVIDE AND CONQUER BY STARTING WITH STATE WORKERS, THEN POLICE AND FIRE (WHICH HE LEFT OUT ONLY FOR THE MOMENT) AND FINALLY - YOU BET, PRIVATE UNIONS, MAKING WI A RIGHT TO WORK STATE.”  (YUP, THAT’S WHERE IT WAS INITIALLY WON. GOD, I WISH I COULD BE PART OF THE FIGHT BACK. THE FIGHT BACK IS NOT JUST A DEMONSTRATION OR TWO. IT’S GOING TO BE AN ONGOING CONTINUOUS STRUGGLE TO  HOLD OUR GAINS.

Barbara told me Walker’s tactics included saying that state workers’ benefits and retirement were better than the private sector and workers were not paying into these benefits - his tactic worked to divide private vs. public workers and to muddy the waters of total compensation and salary.  In fact, WI state workers for several years have had no increases in their salaries, have taken furlough days (more salary cuts); and, when Walker said the budget was bad, AFSME agreed to increases in payments towards healthcare and retirement.  Walker ignored them, and began a process last February 2011 to strip state workers of collective bargaining rights.  Result - cuts in salary to pay more for healthcare and retirement.  Further, state workers have always contributed to their retirement and health benefits.  It’s called total compensation.  Rather than take home more pay in salary, parts of a worker’s total compensation (salary, benefits, retirement, for example) went toward their benefits.  There never has been a free lunch like Walker liked to say. 
 
Hate to remind you but it’s still the CLASS STRUGGLE THAT KARL MARX TOLD US ABOUT. JUST THE NEXT PHASE.

2.The Civil Rights struggle. Our Country was badly divided since the great tragedy of slavery. An estimated 650,000 People were brought here in chains completely against their will to work the Cotton Plantations. The owners made a fortune on that slave labor. Took the Civil War, the bloodiest in history to bring it to an end. The bigotry and persecution of Black people continued after the Civil War . The 1960s saw a continuation of that struggle with the birth of the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT.

That seemed to link up with the fight for jobs. THE ANTI POVERTY PROGRAM under LYNDON JOHNSON WAS BORN.    I WAS FORTUNATE AGAIN TO BE PART OF THAT AT MOBILIZATION FOR YOUTH. MFY.    Again the CLASS STRUGGLE GOT RIGHT INTO IT. MFY became an enemy because they were acting on behalf of those who had been lost in the society and denied the opportunities promised by our Constitution. We marched,we sat in we scared the beeJesus out of the ruling class as we took over schools and other public places.

That movement is now, “Occupy Wall Street” who my, Companion, Al who is from Lithuania, has visited and spent the day. He calls them “devoted, militant. young people who are determined to bring about change.” You see new movements do emerge even without the old “party control”.
The picture in the rest of the world is less encouraging. They-re the old guard really show no signs of conceding power. There is a far deeper problem. They-re is a lack of any real job opportunities. Look, what have they got to market?  The early Industrial Revolution Countries, like England, Textiles Middle East Oil Egypt, textiles. Yes they got the cloth from India but they spun it into marketable pretty stiff. That’s what pissed off Ghandi and started the India movement for INDEPENDENCE.
I am going to quit for now as my poor old brain just doesn’t have that staying power.

LOOK ON THE VISITING THING? COME WHENEVER YOU WISH. OBVIOUSLY I’LL BE HERE. WHO ELSE MIGHT BE , NOT SURE BUT WE CAN HAVE A HUG AND MAYBE A MEMORIAL DAY HOT DOG. ANYHOW I’LL STILL BE HERE I HOPE. MY BEST RS.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

The European Elections.

For sure most Americans can't understand the Europeans remember we are their offspring. What on earth would make them vote Socialist?   Our forefathers and mothers seem to have no trouble seeing the Fiat Motor Car Company operating the same was as the French or Italian Army. You run it as efficiently as you can. If there are profits left over you divvy them up with the folks in operations. If there are none you have to take money from the till box to keep thing' s afloat.

What I learned back in April. No it wasn't about showers.

Early  back in April I learned 
 
About my cancer and the GMC?   I doubted it. 
 
The prognosis from here on out? 
 
Cuts right into me slouching. 
 
Will have to make do,best we can. 
 
Now if at times I seem in a hurry 
 
Indulge me. As I m trying to get it all in. 
 
Nobody knows the time left over. 
 
If we could just Bank it. 
 
Then we could worry less. 
 
Nobody knows the  trouble I’ve seen.  
 
Glory Hallelulala]

Monday, May 7, 2012

The Great Escape!

Irony I am up and out early as we are on our way to MSKCC in the City. We’ll get some more information about how we might “escape?”   My best RS
It was around the late 1920s early 30s. I belonged to the Van Nest Steamrollers. We were a bunch of kids from the Northeast corner of the Bronx. Stuck between two railroads. On the west the New York Boston & Westchester. Never heard of it eah? We called it the Bankers road. It whisked those folks from Westchester County non stop through the Bronx to the financial district. The Steamrollers got our licks by throwing rocks at the trains. Needless to say the bankers never even looked up. The Railroad went down with the depression.
On the east side of Van Nest was The New Haven Railroad. It still there as the Metro North. The Catholic Protectory was right across the tracks. It stood where the Housing Project Parkchester now stands. The Protectory was a boarding school for bad boys, like me. As I was in trouble for so many years in PS 34 I lived in terror of being told that they would put me in the Protectory.     (Pssssssst  I had a knapsack all packed with food and carfare to get me across the river to New Jersey. From there I would hitch my way west. Actually it never happened.)  Back to the Escape. On weekends we were invited to play baseball against the Protectory team. Every time our team walked through the gates play Protectory  I’d be a nervous wreck. Feared, once in, they might never let us out. Especially me with my extended family of radicals.. Like an old medieval fortress this whole place had a 8-10 foot wall all around it for two square blocks. It was designed to scare . Man it sure did.
On one Saturday afternoon we were somewhere’s around the 7th inning. The Steamrollers were ahead by a couple of runs. I managed to get to 3rd base through a walk a single and so on. As I slid into the base I knocked the 3rd basemen over. We are both sort of lying there. Yet he is talking a mile a minute. “look bud we need to get out of this fucking place. We’re really getting worked over in here. Ten lashes for this, 20 for that stuff like that.” Man, now I’m listening. “We gotta get outa here or we’ll die before we even grow up. So, your gonna help us?”  “How.”  No there was no, well we need to think about it, stuff like that.” In my world of Anarchists, Socialists, Communists etc. people in trouble by an oppressor had to be helped.  “So what do you want us to do?”
Get some good rope, like wash-lines about 100 feet long. Twist them together so that they can pull a 150 pound guy over that wall right behind 3rd base. 7 o'clock tonight you through the cord with a brick on the end over the wall.  You got make sure it’s secure on your end so as the guys start to come over the chord line will hold. So far I got about ten guys signed up. Heah by the way what’s your name? Mine’s, Fassanell Ralph. Mine’s Robishe Italian for Robert or Bob. Okay we’re on for tonight. As I was walking off the field I noticed one of the priests who was umping on 3rd base trying real hard to hear our conversation.
As the Steamrollers walked home along the New Haven tracks I began to get nervous that I had to much confidence in our end of the caper. So, I started my recruiting. Whose gonna collect wash lines?  That was easy. Just went to the lots behind the houses where the lines were strong and started to take them out. Whose coming along for the toss over the wall and the pull to get the guys out that assignment got increasingly difficult to fill. Now it became this is the toughest part of this thing so you gotta show what your made of. The agreed on time was after dinner around 6PM. Oh man now we had to synchronize the only two watches the rescuers could lay their hands on. Perry came with an Ingersohl  $ Dollar watch. Whenever it stopped you took it back to an Ingersohl dealer and for a buck he gave you another one. Vinnie was our last recruit as a puller. Vinnie went on to be a wheelman for the local Mafia. Ended up doing time in Sing Sing. (How’d a prison ever get a name like that?) 
We had our own whistle system.3  blasts was abort and get lost. This required real knowledge of the surrounding neighborhood particularly the New Haven train lines schedule. You often had to recruit your own support system. Ralph was a funny and interesting character.  He projected a complete optimism in what we were doing and just assumed it would all workout.
Okay so here’s the appointed hour. John, he was our best Pitcher is the rope brick thrower. He’s gotta get it over that wall or the whole things a bust. Perry. me and some other guys are the pullers on the rope to help the prisoners” climb over that wall to “freedom.” Man, we were so excited none of us could stand still long enough to blow your nose. No, we were collectively trying not to pee in our pants.
Okay, so here’s the agreed on synchronized watch time. Over the wall goes the brick with plenty of rope with it. Sure enough there’s two tugs on the rope. That was our signal to start pulling. We are gathering rope beautifully when over the top of the wall. no you wont believe this comes a Priest blowing his police whistle like crazy. Not sure, I think it was John who picked up a handful of dirt and threw it in the priest’s face. With that we were outa there across the Railroad tracks with the rush hour trains going in both directions. We had agreed to rondayvou in my backyard. Everybody showed up but Perry. Now we were worried. Perry had very strict parents if they even got a whiff of what he was up to it would be a sad day for him. 
Here comes Perry his pants all bloody between his knee and his crotch. What happened?  What happened? guys are all yelling at once?  “Got caught on a barb wire that some dumb son of a bitch tried to put across a track entrance. Heah Robishe i can’t go home like this. You got a pair pants i could use?”   Of course of course.  Has it stopped bleeding? “I think so.” Now I’m sneakin around the house finding bandage Iodine stuff like that. My cousin Mildred comes to our rescue. She sees what’s happening. Says don’t worry we’ll pin him up so nobody will know the difference.
We get Perry home and of course he has to make up some fairy tale about he was bike riding and crossed the tracks got caught between trains running in opposite directions on and on and on. Of course his father doesn’t believe a word of it. Perry doesn’t know why but he just dropped it. Day after our Escape Caper there’s a story in the Bronx Home News of the local kids who got caught trying to help kids escaping the Catholic Protectory.  Good story as it did talk about some of the terrible conditions the boys have to put up with. This was many years before the priest abuse scandals that the church has been forever trying to sweep under the rug. Ralph used to tell me, there were some priests who were just great guys. Just like out here Robish. Some good some bad. Like that Robish.

Friday, May 4, 2012

China Dissident

Back in 1954 I think Elizabeth Bentley wanted to defect to the US. She got caught in the backyard of the Russian Embassy. They were trying to figure out how to get her out of the clutches of the KGB. This was the same front page crap we have going on now about Chen Guangchengs the Chinese victim of Stalinism, no no I meant Ho-Jintao Secretary Central Committee Chinese Communist Party. It was much easier to remember the name Stalin than Ho-Jintao. Back in the cold war days it was between two powers within similar cultural worlds. I admit I feel for Hillary having to deal with this Kabuki of SAVING FACE. She was just trying to make some kind of deal on trade. Now she’s stuck with this stone collar around her neck. “How the hell am I going to weedle our way out of this garbage dump?”

Meantime back home. Mitt Romney and his Karl Rove one percenters are screaming bloody murder that the Obama Administration have sold the “poor blind dissident, Chen down the river to the Chinese Communists.” Oh yes they don’t care a goat's turd about Chen. This is what we are in for right up until November 2012. Every issue no matter how distant it may seem will be made part of the coming election. And man there are a bucket full of them.

Biggest of all will be another confrontation on the debt ceiling. You remember the last one? That was child's play compared to what is coming up this time. The one percenters have smelt blood as Obama put the entitlement programs on the block. Look, don’t be too surprised but I have begun to think we, the 99 percent can’t just sit here and say NO. That is not a policy. It’s a position of failing our responsibility. I am not suggesting we join Mr. Ryan’s solution for Medicare. “Just privatize it.” Same with SS same with the Marine Corps and so on.” Our position of 'it’s sacrosanct don’t touch it' is wearing out. Where we can see there are real problems ahead, we need to come up with solutions. Then we are part of solving the problem. Just saying “No” leaves us outside the conversation. I want to be at that bargaining table when that issue comes up. Then I have a say in the solution.

The Google problem is just getting worse. Just going to Google with a question as I did on Elizabeth Bentley ended me up with, “you want the answer? Buy this book by Eleanor Roosevelt for $75.00.” Where oh where has Google gone? Gone to make money like all the rest. We may be headed down the road of private control of the whole Internet. Think about it. Maybe that’s already true. Somehow average citizens around the world were able to use the Internet as their organizing tool. Losing access could do irreparable harm to that whole new way of calling the folks to the streets. How do we cope with that prospect?

Because Google has really screwed up the Blogbuster website, I will now rely on my dear son-in-law Robert to post it for me. Thank you so much. My best RS

Monday, April 30, 2012

Here Comes May Day Again

If I had one wish left? I would March in today's May day Parade. This “May Day” not an emergency call. It was the night before May 1st 1927 All through the house preparation was made, No Maypole dancing for this crowd. A serious parade would be underway. “Papa “who are we going to march with?” “We’ll see we’ll see. Now for the posters.” Free Mooney Billings, and the Scottsboro Boys. Papa “are we gonna sing Hold the Fort?” I lived in house of rebels. There were Socialists, communists, freethinkers, anarchists, Wobblies, atheists, modern dancers, single taxers and lots more. All preparing to march. This was our workers holiday. Maybe the only thing we all agreed to. Long ago it started the eight hour day fight. This 1930 day I stayed out of school. In the workers holiday.” Teacher, “what is that?” “This day we celebrate workers who built this land.” Papa are we gonna sing Hold The Fort?” There I was with my Papa on Fifth Avenue at 50th Street Amongst the bricklayer and mason unions. Girls were with the modern dancers. Maybe the Garment Workers brigade? Up came the signs. “Jobs for all” “ Old age, Social Security. That’s where the Social Security fight started. Free Mooney Billings and Scottsboro Boys.” We started our march down Fifth Avenue All the way to Union Square. Singing Hold The fort for we are coming Union men be strong. Side by side We battle onward victory be won. With upraised fists flags flying Marched before the reviewing stand Papa said we were 250-300 thousand strong. I knew we had to win all our demands. “Hold the Fort” as we were there.” Holding my Papas big hand. The proudest thirteen year old in the land. NOW? THE PROUDEST 94 YEAR OLD IN THE LAND.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Visit to "Memorial" or Mecca?

Mostly taken from notes that Elaine made during visit.

Kate and dear friend Elaine and I went to see Dr. Brown at “Memorial” Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. MSKCC. (I am overwhelmed with the basic size of the institution.There are thousands of employees. I also learned, it is not unionized.) I thought we were gong to get an update on what was learned from the new Catscan at our last visit. On the way home by cellphone we learned that growth in Pancreas was inoperable because it was on top of an artery. Also that there were spots on the liver that were suspicious that cancer had spread. Before leaving we were given our next appointment with Dr. Brown.

We had hoped that Dr. Brown could answer the question, If the liver and Pancreas cancer are the same, it is assumed in 99 percent of cases, then what can be done about it? Or what is the intervention ? Nope that didn’t work. Dr. Brown explained that she was just a “procedure doctor” who would do the Biopsy. An analysis of that effort would go through the lab and then we would hear about a plan for intervention. Of course my concern is if there is no really good intervention why bother? I prefer what good days I can pull out of this time of my life than some kind of Cheemo that will make what I have left miserable. What’s the point?

I do appreciate the work being done at MSKCC and yet an institution that big can’t help falling into role playing. “I just do this part.” Someone else on the 4th floor will do your blood work. The 3rd floor person will do your EKG. and so on. Each did their job well I am sure. What I am not sure is how this place can manage not to begin to feel like a factory with each person playing a role. “This is what I do so don’t ask me about anything else.” Here I am thinking as a Sociologist. How can that be avoided in an Institution the size of Sloan Kettering? Don’t know. Still would love to know the answer to my question?

We’re home. It’s late. I get an e mail from Elaine. Found a Doctor at Stony Brook who has developed an electrical shocking system for killing cancer cells with out destroying the surrounding organ. I’m curious. Its where my Internist works. He’s in Madagascar. Gets my e mail on the Doctor involved. He’ll speak with him when he’s back on Tuesday. I wonder is this just another “Hope Ring.” I remember one where a doctor in Mexico was curing Cancer with Almonds. People in my situation who are still feeling pretty good have a lot of trouble with just quitting. “Damm there must be something I can do beside pray.”

Well in the meantime I put in a nice day in the shop working on Thomas Jefferson's Stand Up Desk. Not a simple piece of furniture as it is built to do a variety of functions. Doing the best I can short of actually knowing him.

Monday, April 23, 2012

The Flight From Conversation

(Okay it’s past midnight. Can’t sleep Need to comment)

“We think that our sips of online connections
add up to a gulp. They don’t” Sherry Turkle

Lead story Sunday Review NY Times.

If you remember, some time back I wrote a blog about same subject. The NY. Times considered the issue important enough to give it the whole front page of the Sunday Review and another inside half page. Man this has got to be big news. Really?

The author Sherry Turkle is a Psychology Professor at MIT. leaves out a most important loss from Text messaging. I’ll get to that in a minute. There was a book published back in 1950 called “The Lonely Crowd.” It too was a big eye opener re. relationships. Revealing the fact that back then all those guys rushing to and fro on the commuter trains into Grand Central from their manicured lawn homes in Connecticut were a “Lonely Crowd,” In that book Reisman argued that the emergence of the “other directed” personality was a real threat to a democracy based on the need for social cohesion. You wonder what happened to social cohesion? Look around our present political scene.

The present Facebook, Twitter, Linkdin, Tweeter et.al present another danger. It is not just the loss of conversation but more important the loss of emotion, feelings in our relation with each other. At no point in this long, Turkle article does the experience of the text recipients feelings, emotions gets dealt with. Yes of course there are adjectives galore for describing feelings.(Cyrano De Bergerac) That’s not the same as that very same experience live, face to face communication. Look at it this way.

You want to propose to your loved one. You could send it on your Blackberry between a meeting and a coffee break or a pee. Benefit could be if rejected you wouldn’t have to deal with what the face of the rejector looked like or expressed. No pickup of feeling or emotional expression. How did he look when he popped the question. Could the receiver look into his eyes and see the love she’s looking for. Anybody could be writing text messages for their friends. In the same way as smart kids were being paid in Long Island to take the SAT tests for admission to State Colleges, Admitted feelings are of know consequence in that situation. However in personal texting, I am told 95 percent is strictly personal stuff. In that case feelings are critical to understanding,

When I think of all the conversations I have had in my life you could never understand the arguments that Carl Marzani and I had on the beach at Fire Island unless you could take in the decibel level of the yelling. Inevitably we would attract a crowd and before long there could be a crowd of 20-30 people arguing the cold-war. abortion, the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel and any other subject that someone would start. That was conversation on a mass scale. Personally I preferred a one on one exchange in a place where I could read the other persons feelings. At times the feelings and the talk where in conflict. Then it was necessary to help the other figure out what they really wanted to say, That’s a learning process, This does not exist in texting.

What is lost in texting is the personal intimate messages that each of gives off in a conversation called emotions. Why does it matter? It is in our felt, I emphasize the word FELT because that’s where our creative and learning juices dwell. Yes that’s the place of poetry, music, and yes love and hate and all the emotions in between. Texting tends to cripple our emotional life because it transfers a message but not the emotion as well, or not at all, as a face to face or belly to belly encounter. So there.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Cancer General Motors and Ford

Much of lifetime in battle with

GM Ford Chrysler, Delco

Just to make their workplaces

Fit for humans, with a living wage

An assembly line with dignity & respect.

Curry Chevrolet very first strike.

Learned to eat raw clams, slurp oysters.

“The kids very first oyster,” How the men laughed.

Ha ha ha ha ha and Another trespassing arrest.

Ford Weehawken Assembly over the fence

Leaflets inside the plant. We won for the U.A.W.

Good Works at Henry Ford’s Foundation

Voting rights, Civil rights, Women’s rights.

Miners for Democracy, Anti Poverty.

Old Ford money fighting the good fight.

Here I am at Sloan Kettering hospital

Two giants of GM Left their money to fight cancer.

Do they know they’re treating an old adversary?

Their way of saying? “Sorry for the cancers we caused?


Arrived at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) to see Dr. A. He had seen the Cat-scan from Stony Brook. Thought he could operate remove growth from pancreas. Decided on new Cat-scans done at MSKCC. New Cat-scans taken right then and there. He would let us know results on the way home. In the car driving back from the city came the call.

Problem. The growth is over an artery. Can’t operate. They will call Monday to setup appointment for Endoscopy so they can see is malignant and what kind etc. and start Chemo. The Chemo not as devastating as many others. So there we are. Really slouching to 95. My best RS

Sunday, April 15, 2012

"NEW OIL ENERGY OPTIMISM"

(First a comment on my last blog about doctor problems in Medicare. Turns out I have a little bit of a problem in my Pancreas. Something there that ain’t suppose to be there. So once again I have to tell you, “we’ll see.” In the meantime lets press forward.)

On Wednesday April 11th the NY Times ran a special 10 page section on Energy. So, what did they have to say. Opening headline. FUEL TO BURN: NOW WHAT? “Abundant and cheaper fuel. Damping enthusiasm for clean forms of energy and derailing efforts to wean the nation from it’s wasteful energy habits.” Yes, we have been scared stiff about a flair up in the Middle East, like a bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites would hit us with another “cars waiting on gas lines to fill up.” Politically that could be an election buster for Obama. So as far as our cars are concerned we can go back to the old Industrial Revolution party YIPPEEE “we can have it all. Including gas guzzlers cause our very own oil boom is on its way.

The big surprises are coming as a result of NEW TECHNOLOGIES. (Think Titannic here.Man conquering nature. That very old dream.) Years ago this is what my local Hardware store buddies were telling me. “Listen Robert stop worrying about peak oil.” I had published a blog about how we were about to run out of one of the biggest oil fields in Saudi Arabia. That would have been a game changer. The hardware store gang were right. Technology to the rescue with new techniques for deep drilling and horizontal line drilling to find new sources of oil. Here at home we are doing that with old wells in Texas, California etc.

And then there’s FRACKING FOR SHALE OIL & GAS! First of all the fossil fuel retrieved as a result of fracking is by far the dirtiest. It requires a lot of water and chemicals to be literally exploded down as far as 5,000 feet or more to loosen the tar like substance and then to refine it and turn it into gasoline or diesel fuel. Frankly we don’t really know all the harm that can result from this type of activity. (BUT WHO CARES BECUSE WE ARE BACK PARTYING IN THE WORLD OF FOSSIL FUELS,)

Here’s the elephant in the room that we simply refuse to recognize. Pssst, that would interfere with the PARTY and the money to be made in this new market. Okay you think I make this stuff up? New York Times, ”oil production in the US could reach an astounding 27 million barrels by 2020 almost double the production of 2011.” That would also double the amount of carbon dioxide that we are dumping into the atmosphere. That would double the speed of the natural breakdown of climate change. There are wee little breakthroughs on Climate Change recognition. A few times of late I have noticed that news Anchors on major networks when reporting on the increase in Tornados, Floods, Drought's Heat waves, Cold waves etc. are beginning to ask the question, “COULD THESE CHANGES IN WEATHER PATTERNS BE THE RESULT OF CLIMATE CHANGE?” HURRAY THEY'RE WAKING UP. Maybe it’s to late.

It is precisely because we are reluctant to give up the old Industrial party of burning relatively cheap fossil fuel that we are destroying the very planet that we have been partying on for all these years. With the Polar Bear acting as the Canary in the coal mine. (When the mine gas level killed the Canary the miners knew it was time to get out, quick.) The Polar bear is telling us to stop dumping the million of tons of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere. It has defrosted the Arctic Ocean.

There are warning signs all over the world. Rapid increase of glacial ice melt raising ocean levels. Glaciers melting, forerunner of no drinking water for millions of people, Acidification of the oceans, destroying basic food sources, I fear we will end up destroying the very place we we had a wonderful life for 200 years. Future generations will have a tough time trying to understand what was wrong with us? Just as I do now.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Spider-web---Medical Care

My plan was to was write about the Ryan Romney Budget and how to explain it to the Citizenry. Instead I got caught in the “go see the doctor routine.” Like an old Model T Ford parts of me continue to wear out. Natural as I slouch to 95. Through much of my adult life I have had Hyper Tension.( High Blood Pressure.) That sent me on regular doctor visits. It was in those I observed that more than one purpose was being served by people going to see “the doctor.” Through questioning people in waiting rooms I began to observe some patterns. (This was in the early days of a New York City Insurance, H.I.P. started by Mayor LaGuardia back in the 1940s. Now of course it includes Medicare and lots of other insurance plans.)

A number of older patients literally had nothing to do this day so they decide to “go see the doctor.” It is often possible to get a conversation going in a medical waiting room as people seem anxious to tell their own medical stories while listening to others. In a sense it’s a medical, can you top this one. What began to strike me was the doctor visits might very well be a “social call” for the lonesome. Many years ago I suggested to New York Hospital that they have a Social Worker in the waiting room area for the patients to talk with. That might have eliminated the need to talk with the doctor.

This “social calling” for want of a better phrase raises difficult issue for the doctors. This is particularly true for those dealing primarily with Medicare people. On any number of occasions in doctors offices I experienced the following. My advanced age often leads to a discussion of Genes. “I’d sure take your genes any-day.” Often a “Blessing goes with it. (Those I tend to bank. As I screw up I give up a blessing but keep track of the ones I still have, Never have found the “bank” empty of Blessings. Hence my long life.) This is what follows.

There is a weird compulsion on the part of doctors to do something for the patient. Soon after WW2 friends who through the GI Bill had become doctors would complain about patients who insisted on a prescription or a specialist referral or something in return for their office visit. Our friend Arnold said he was writing placebo prescriptions, sugar, salt, aspirin anything that made the patient feel like they had a worthwhile trip to the doctor. There have been occasions when I wanted to say to the doctor all you need to tell me is “look for your age all your signs indicate your doing just fine. so keep doing what your doing and I’ll see you in six months.” I have been told, for most patients that simply doesn’t work.

I do believe this social needs of the elderly is at least part of what drives up the Medicare costs. Unnecessary doctor visits plus unnecessary doctor referrals and procedures to satisfy the patients desire “TO DO SOMETHING.” It also feeds the need for the next appointment that assures some social contact. I had hoped that at least some of this problem would have been solved with the advent of the social media. The number of people seeing doctors are overwhelmingly seniors who grew up without IPad, Facebook, Twitter, Linkdin, Meet Me.etc. This is a real problem facing the folks who are trying to rain in the rising costs of medical care. Educating the consumer can help but I believe it’s gonna take a lot more than that like some tough discipline on the doctors part.

As to my attendance at the Doctors. We are waiting for specialist reports. Then we’ll see.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

My Worry Cup Runeth Over! 3/29/12

Still dealing with the sicklys. Dr.'s trying to find out who or what is attacking my abdomen ? In the meantime I am trying to keep up with the whirlwind of crap that is confusing my view. I know I am suppose to be hanging on to all the little tiny nuances going at the Supreme Court. “Did you notice that Justice Kennedy looked up at the ceiling when Justice Ginsburg asked what is the blah blah blah about Obama Care?” Besides we wont know exactly how this most politically active court will decide until June. So, I’m going to put that on “hold.” For now,as my worry cup is concerned with a lot of other stuff. For instance.

It may be out of the headlines but the Fukushimia Dailichi Nuclear meltdown continues. If it burns out the bottom of the container vessel we will have another Chenobel.
The President of the Maldives acknowledging that his country is going underwater as a result of rising ocean levels. CLIMATE CHANGE. Polar Bears are the Canaries in the coal mine.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak are itching to drop a bomb or two on Iran’s Nuclear Operation. After heavy reading on the issue of Iran’s Nuclear pursuit I conclude that this attack by Israel may well be a foregone conclusion. They cannot do this without the help of the US. They need “Bunkerbuster Bombs and guess what, we are the only one who have em. Remember the Open Mic conversation between Obama and Medvedev? (Obama telling Medvedev to wait until he is reelected.)

The Israeli’s know this timetable problem as well as the Russians. Except they don’t believe they have the luxury of waiting. I don’t hear voices tackling this issue.
In Netanyahu’s recent visit to the US he very successfully maneuvered the President in this critical election period into saying the US will not leave Israel in a lurch over the Iran nuclear bomb issue. Obama drew Red Lines and yes he tried to convince Netanyahu to “let the world wide boycott of Iran take its effect before we do anything.” Netanyahu sort shook his head as if to say, “yeah, yeah shon gehort.” (Yiddish for already heard.) All the parties involved understand the election problem both here and it turns out also in Israel. That’s what I fear is driving the decision.I really fear how this will launch a nuclear race in the middle east.

The Genocide's in Africa once again is on the front page. What if anything we can do about the Old Sudan versus the new Southern Sudan even if we were willing? By the way there is now oil in Southern part. The traditional tribal animosities, now plus oil, continue to haunt that poor continent. Yet, how can we watch those starving children without a strong sense that “attention must be paid.” But what can we do? At the very least send food to the overcrowded refugee camps.

Now there’s the Trayvon Martin problem that has re-ignited the civil rights struggles of the sixties. Also shines light on the crazy STAND YOUR GROUND Law that lets you shoot first because you believe you were threatened. Talk about Crazy.!

How can we support that effort to shine a light on the continuing problem of rank discrimination by public authority against the civil rights of Black people? As the Sanford Police Department continues its clumsy efforts to picture Trayvon as the aggressor. It becomes increasingly obvious that a classic case of blame the victim is underway. (Ha, not unlike the 400 women in Afghanistan jails who were sent there because they reported they were victims of husband abuse. Once again the world is looking like an old time Insane Asylum.)

How can I Gage how my worry cup is doing? Is it by the number of Petitions I am asked to sign daily? As well as the endless pleas for money for the most worthy causes? Including, being asked to set forth some notions about how the occupy movement should reassert itself? Wow, what a terrible time not to be feeling up to par with so many, better world battles to be won. Oh I know you could add a few of your own issues. Just got to HANG IN THERE, LIKE THAT KITTEN ON THE WASH-LINE. My best RS

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Miscellany Slouching to 95 !

No blog because unable to get brain in gear. When brain has to fight pain I can’t always be sure who is going to win. Past week goes to pain. Me and doctors trying to find the cause. In this time of reprieve. Let me sound off.

Start with sorrow. The end of the print addition of the Encyclopedia Britannica makes me sad. At my desk there is a bookcase within arms reach. In all its Gold and Brown glory lives the 30 volume Britannica. It’s my intellectual pussy blanket. It has always given me a felt sense of security regarding all the things I don’t know. Or things I thought I knew but needed a backup to say, “THIS IS A FACT” How do you know? “Because the Bible, no the Britannica told me so.

Oh yes you will now have the “one click” and there’s that same fact on your computer screen. You now what you will miss? Browsing through the before and after pages learning about stuff you never thought of. And the feel and smell of those rustling pages as they have done since the year 450 when the monks in the “Scriptoria” were handwriting books. Yea yea, I know we must press on. Why? I’m not sure? Next item.

The War on Woman seems to have grown right out of, “Woman Are Now a Majority in the Workforce.” Yupp he big man are increasingly suffering from a sense of loss. That sense has to do with their domination of the workplace since the invention of work. Back in the 1930s I remember the adds in Popular Mechanics of poor little skinny guy on the beach. He was losing his girl friend to he big muscle man. Exercise bar could change all that.

Yet, the men in power are once again trying to take charge of woman's bodies. In Virginia they Legislate that women wanting an abortion have to have a metal wand stuck in her vagina to see the heartbeat. Woman across the country raise hell. Republicans shiver. Governor McDonelle backs away. Substitute outside belly ultrasound. Don’t matter that women says I don’t want to do that.”

Same folks who want the government off our backs want the government inside woman's vagina's. Home run for hypocrisy. Governor of Penn. where they pass similar laws. Says, “If we’re doing an ultrasound the women can close her eyes and not look.” Can’t make this stuff up.

I admit, I never in my lifetime thought my “breadwinner” role would decline so rapidly. How come? The outsourcing of manufacture from the USA and the emergence of the electronic age speeded up the change. The new cubicle workplace does not require big brawny men. Mostly it requires brains and discipline. No shortage of that amongst woman. Men are now becoming increasingly Peacocks to attract the girls. Latest big promotional advertising is “Dove For Men.” A whole line of soaps, perfumes, body washes etc. all for the grown up boys just like Estee Lauder for the girls. Wow how fast things change. Next item?

Sergeant Bates on a shooting rampage, not a “spree” in Afghanistan is another crime like the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. Soldiers living in totally unfamiliar cultures and not having a clue why they are there are known to snap. They are suffering from the absurd reality that the whole idea is insane. They are just acting out what many of us back home just thought. They had come face to face with the lunacy. Reminds me of Dr. Winkle in the Remarque novel “Black Obelisk.” Dr. Winkle told Remarque, “if you understood all the lunacy in a mental hospital you would be a patient there.” That should be the diagnosis of Sergeant Bates”s actions. He simply could not grasp why he was in Afghanistan except to kill, kill, kill. That sent him over the hill. He may end up spending his life in prison. How about the crazies like Charlie Wilson, George Bush Dick Cheney Obama who took us and keep us there? Next item.

The movie, on HBO ”Game Change” about McCain, Pailin fiasco. Yes, I don’t think Sarah Pailin is to swift nor the, “sharpest pencil in the box,” as they use to say in the Bronx in Bing Crosby time. I hate to admit this but by the end I was feeling sorry for Sarah. How so? Well the whole idea of Pailin being the VP candidate was cooked up by a bunch of smart ass guys who were about to make use of a woman for their very own purposes. To help elect their loser candidate to the Presidency. Yes, for sure I can fault Pailin for going along. My gut tells me that Mr. Schmidt and company were more responsible than Pailin. They cooked up the idea in the first place. They are suppose to be the leaders. How about their responsibility? We seem to be in an epidemic of leaders failure to accept responsibility for their actions. They just kick it on down the line to some junior in the command structure. In this case they blame it all on Pailin.

Heah! For now I am glad to be back. PS see my blog of 2/10/11 “On Abortion” I am very proud to say that Planned Parenthood asked my permission to use it. A very happy, “Yes” of course.”

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Moose-head on the Table?

And other fears this spring

Got to get this off my chest. As I sit and watch the pictures of the increasing number of Tornadoes I am ready to scream out the window. No, It is not, “I’m am angry and not going to take it anymore.” As I look out over the devastation and listen to those poor souls through tears, telling the world, “We have lost everything we care about. What are we to do?” Last year was a record breaker in the number of Tornadoes. My hunch. This year will break last years record with its very early late February start.

Here comes the Moosehead on the table. back in my Organizational Development, OD days we spoke of the Mooshead phenomena. Sometimes it was the elephant in the room. The point simply was that we are suffering from a refusal to recognize a major factor staring us in the face. Why? Because then we would have to do something about it. That’s called, DENIAL. Buy doing so we simply avoid dealing with the issue. Welcome to Tornado Mooshead on the table.

I am, waiting for ONE SINGLE reporter meteorologist anybody who might just ask the question. COULD THIS BE PART OF CLIMATE CHANGE PHENOMENA? Oh, no because that has now become a political no,no like the Mooos-------on the table. You get what I mean.

As I sit here at my desk looking at pictures of my wonderful grand and great grandchildren it depresses me to think of how we continue to destroy this wondrous planet with all its grandeur of animals and plants. How our destruction will end up I am not at all certain. But for God-sakes how many more clues do we need to see what Climate Change is doing? Defrosted Arctic, South pacific Island flooded by rising seas. New deserts being created by shifting rain patterns. Floods wiping out old cities and towns etc. etc. And the deniers keep whistling Dixie as they explain, “oh its just another cyclical shift.” I have only one question for that crap shoot. And suppose it ain’t? Then what?

Yes, it's spring here on long Island. How do I know? The Red Wing Blackbird in his gorgeous,red, yellow black Tuxedo is back. I love him announcing his presence with his call, Maitre Deeee, Maitre Deee. Yes, I am lucky enough to still be able to experience these simple joys. But here comes another probably more urgent fear. Constant fear is a terrible consequence of our times? I spend a lot of time trying to decide what is our greatest fear for today?

Here comes the Bunkerbuster War!

Very heavy saber rattling in Washington about the Iran Israel crisis. Is this for real or is it just another send-up to another war? Sure reminiscent of the Iraq war. In case you forgot Weapons of Mass Destruction was the reason for that invasion. Iran is threatening the very existence of Israel vis a vie a Nuclear Bomb. We happen to be in high Presidential political season. Israel Prime Minister, Netanyaho makes a speech to AIPAC, powerful, top Jewish lobbying group in the US. He wants Obama to make red lines of when we start dropping “Bunkerbuster Bombs” on the Iranian Nuclear facilities. Yes, we are the only ones who have such instruments of war. So, either we drop em or give them over to the Israelis. Even that presents problems of their delivery ability. Okay, you see where this argument is going. It turns out that we might be the only resource that the Israelis can depend on for what Netanyaho has called their very survival.

The counter argument is that the Iranians on not that stupid or irrational to threaten Israeli with a Nuclear weapon. After all Israel has a dozen or more. It does remind me of the years of the Cold War including the Cuban Missile crisis. All those Nukes out there and none were ever launched. Yes that’s an alternative point of view not popular in an election year when the game of “Chicken” is now in full play. Obama is going to have to prove he is even tougher than taking out Asama Ben Laden. Poor, poor Obama he is always being pushed into a corner by the far right to prove his Macho.

Thinking of the possible consequences of the Bunkerbuster War? Arab Spring turns into Arab war against the American Satan. Iran blocks the Gulf of Hormuz. Our Navy bombs Iran to open up the Gulf. Gas prices at $4.00 a gallon will be a bargain as we go to $5.00 or maybe $6.00. Terrorist attacks against world wide US targets including some in the US. Gas lines reminecent of Jimmy Carter. Same Fox News crowd will then be blaming, you guessed it, Obama for creating the mess.

Real Problem. Once this Bunkerbuster war gets started, “How do we stop it??? “ Can we take it to the UN? The Arab countries well say the US needs to get its Imperialist intentions out of the Middle East. And what will we say in reply? We are once again entering a very dangerous game that once started will take on a life of its own and be very difficult to stop. Could be just like in Afghanistan.

Enjoy the spring and I hope the Red Wing Blackbird visits you as well.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

What's A Man To Do?

“Most U.S. Births Outside Wedlock Before Age 30”

Lead story NY Times Feb.18th 2012

You want to talk “Social Change” with far reaching implications. First let me go back to Feb. 2010 I wrote a blog called, “Women Majority in Workforce.” In that piece I sighted an article I had written for the Harvard Business Review back in 1977 called “Three Men Two Women On a Raft.” From My experience on an Outward Bound trip down the Rogue river I concluded that men are not going to rollover and let women take their positions of power. With the shift in the workforce the issue of leadership power will also change. As a professional women my wife Kate was an early success in the corporate world. She often suggested, “what women need to be successful in position of leadership is a “critical mass.” Well, Kate your about to get it.

Talk “social change.” How about this? “Before age 30 MOST U.S. BIRTHS OUTSIDE of WEDLOCK.” NY Times Feb. 18th. We are not talking Black women on welfare. It’s a majority of white unmarried women. It reminds me of the the claims early in the Feminist Movement that “we don’t really need men. As far as procreation is concerned there’s always the “sperm bank.” Admitted that was extreme. Yet what is going on now could go there.

The male reaction to being supported by their professional wife is causing him to become far more cosmetically conscious. First Page NY Times Feb. 20th 2012. “Men Step out of Recession, Bag on Hip, Bracelet on Wrist.” Heah, the bag on hip stuff is just a “Pocketbook.” There is now a whole new line of men's beauty products including perfume. This week I received a new catalog of men's accessories. “This business has grown by 14 percent in last half of 2011.” NY Times front page Feb.20th.How about the new trend of fancy beards for the Peacocks?

Oh, you don’t know what’s going on here? Three major forces converging. 1.The loss of manufacturing jobs that gave the male the title “Breadwinner.” That was me from the 30s through the 60s. It was part of the post war boom that created the hugely successful middle class. The male worked on the shop floor brought home the bacon. Mama, the kids, the dog and the cat were all living “Happily Ever After.” Those Midwestern Manufacturing Towns are now rusting away into oblivion land.

2. As factories disappeared from Pittsburgh service industries took their place. The finance services, retail sales, education, medical services constitute a majority of the workforce. These are workplaces that women dominate. 3. I85 women now graduate from college to every 100 men. It’s the college education that is now the best predictor of success in the job market. Men are looking for ways to adjust to their new reality. Some are switching roles and staying home trying to play housewife. Others are spending their days in the bar with buddies commiserating, getting drunk or depressed sometimes both.

What society needs to do is help men get into non-traditional male jobs like nursing, hairdresser, medical technician, maybe even midwife. Wow and I remember when I was coaching women in non traditional jobs like electrician, coal miners, carpenters. All this in my very own lifetime. No wonder I sometimes ache all over.

PS. We went to see, "Venus In Furs" a very popular Broadway smash hit. It’s a two person piece and the women Nina Arianda is great at hamming it up. Okay, so what’s this playlit about? It’s mostly about a man who can’t seem to make up his mind what he wants from a women. The women character to a lessor extent suffers the same quandary. How does this back and forth about how they should behave toward the other end? He, poor soul is tied to a post pleading for Aphrodite. She of course is the Goddess of seduction. Not a bad reflection of the present dilemma of us men.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Winston Churchill's Bed

So many things to comment on but a bout with the Flu left me with an old tale to tell.

Some time in the early seventies while at the Ford Foundation the issue of youth Employment was always high on the agenda. Short time after the end of WW2 Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire England was made into a British American Conference Center to promote close collaboration understanding between the English speaking countries. For 300 years Ditchley was home to a very wealthy “Gentry” family.

So, one lovely spring day we turned into a driveway that I was sure was a mistake that I had been taken to one of the many castles owned by the Monarchy. The driver assured me otherwise. (My Socialist father described the landed gentry as the “bloodsuckers, profiteers who first exploited the English Peasantry and then went around the world doing the same thing in the Colonies.”)

I questioned the driver on the need for the two story high front doors? He said they could accommodate a mounted Knight in full regalia spear in hand. In the corner was a smaller door and a man in a sort of tuxedo outfit---the Butler--- took my suitcase. I gazed about this huge room in absolute amazement at its size with a fireplace large enough for me to stand in. In a booming voice the Butler announced to whom I know not. “Robert Schrank from the United States.” Not wanting to show my ignorance of the ways of royalty I decided I would just go along with whatever was going to happen. Keep in mind I grew up during the Great Depression when my family’s primary concern was food shelter and clothing. You can see why this Butler experience was pretty bizarre stuff.

When my boss Mike arrived also experiencing the same reaction to the Butler’s
welcome.Says, "So Schrank you thought you had to wait for the Revolution to be welcomed to the home of British Royalty. What would your old Bronx radicals say about this?” Like me Mike had grown up in with working class parents and we both spent much of our youth in the Labor Movement. Hearing the Butler declaiming each arrival gave us both the giggle fever that was tough to control.

I was assigned the very same bedroom that Winston Churchill used during the war on, “full moon weekend nights.” (On those nights the Germans did not bomb as they would be to easily spotted.) Churchill came to Ditchley with his whole Cabinet for a little R&R. Churchill’s bedroom was about 25 by 30. But what was almost as large was the bathroom. I was sure that the ceramic tub had been excavated from an Egyptian burial ground as a Royal Sarcophagus.

We were called to dinner in an elegant 18th Century dinning hall festooned with battle flags and clan identities. By each of the 25 settings was a long lineup of silverware. Fortunately I had been to a formal dinner. The young women sitting next to me noticing my uncertainties, whispered, “just start with the closest utensil on the left and with each course go to the next.” After desert the Director gave us the schedule of the meetings for the next several days.

I returned to Churchill's Bedroom. Upon sitting on the bed I found a huge sink hole smack in the middle. The mattress was sitting on one of those old springs that went from head to foot. I thought, hell if Churchill could sleep in it so could I. Well I couldn’t. Woke a couple of hours later with a screaming back ache. I now did what I had done many times in flea-bag Motels. As a doctor friend advised, “just pull the mattress down on the floor. You’ll do your back a big favor.”

Somewhere in a deep many zone sleep I thought I heard two knocks on the door and voice declaiming, tea knockup sir.” The door swings open and there in full Butler regalia, his right arm holding a tray was this bewildered fellow. He looks at the beds exposed spring and then glance down on the floor, where I’m peeking out from under the covers. The poor fellow almost drops his tray. I try to reassure him, “Oh its nothing I always sleep on the floor.” He blurts out in most agitated alarm. “My God the Yank has pulled Mr. Churchill’s mattress on the floor.” With that he abruptly leaves. Lost my first experience with “Tea Knockup.’

In the following days I was never again offered “Tea Knockup. I was told that everyone especially the kitchen help wanted to get a look at the Yank who sleeps on the floor. Oh the conference went fine. We reviewed all the reasons that youth are having difficulty finding jobs, “Unprepared, lack of jobs, in the wrong place shifting needs for high tech work. We also knew all the things that needed to be done to fix it. Heah, just like now.

PS> I was invited back to Ditchley several times never assigned to Churchill’s room.



.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Facebook Linkidin Twitter etc. Versus J.Edgar Hoover

I can’t resist this. Can you believe we have reached a point in our Country where the biggest stock offering is going to be Facebook? What exactly does Facebook produce? Oh, you got my point. Facebook doesn’t make a damm thing you can put your hand on. It's going to make a ton of money because you are probably a member and they can custom target advertising that you wont be able to resist. Amazon does that already with me and it’s ”One Click” seducer.

Getting back to J. Edgar. Far fetched, you think? Yes I did too until I began to compare what Hoover’s, 700 page FBI File on me says and what Facebook or Google could say about me. When Hoover was collecting information on me he primarily had four different sources. Tapped phones. Physical surveillance, Informers, Intercepted mail. Physical surveillance meant sending Agents to record what I said at a meeting or actually approaching me for an interview. The latter consisted of this clumsy, “Hi, Bob can we talk to you? It’ll only take a few minutes of your time. So, has your family? Daughter doing well over there at Music and Art.” All that sweet talk was suppose to soften you up by showing how friendly they are and yes we already know a lot about you so why not tell us about some other people we happen to be interested in?

840 million members on Facebook Linkedin 135 Million Members. I get repeated invitations to be somebody's “Friend.” Often, no most of the times it’s not a person I’m even familiar with. Usually I click yes. Why? Underneath I am really sorry for people who have to create lots of friends through social networking. You know Facebook wont accept more than 5,000 friends? Isn’t that too bad? Now think about all the stuff they know about you. Oh, maybe it’s my McCarthy years paranoia that worries me about how much information the Digital Network is collecting about us?

Then I began thinking about all the various present day institution who have been collecting data on me for years. First there’s my credit cards. Then there’s Facebook, Linkdin. Google they all have loads of information about my, purchases, (books movies, DVD’s) looked at all together one could easily figure out my politics, my relations to other like minded people my movements, who I visited with, who I might have shared a trip with. What I published and who visited my blog.

Hoover had to get a court order to tap my phone. I can buy a unit in Radio Shack so I can listen to other peoples cell phone. So can the Social Networks. Yes, they target my advertising based on my digital purchasing. Google has stuff about me that comes from 3rd hand sources. Quotes of what I was supposed to have said in somebody's book. Yes you want a State that can easily trace your every move? We got it.

Oh, you think it doesn’t matter because it was the Internet that launched the Arab Spring? On balance would you call this information gathering an asset or a liability? Yes I know there are lots of folks who believe it was the Internet that was the mobilizer of those hundreds of thousands that took over Tahrir square in Egypt and similar places across the Middle East. I agree that the Internet can be a great, instant protest organizer.

Yes, I wonder? Is that what takes the sting out of the Protest? Precisely because it vented the anger? BUT the protest had no real plan for what kind of change it wanted. That’s what is happening in the Middle East today. There has been no clear program for the protesters to fight for. Ahhh yes, except for the Muslim Brotherhood. Their very existence is evidence for what I am talking about. So there’s the rub. Yes the Internet is a remarkable organizing tool. It may be acting as a pressure relief valve letting off steam from angry citizens. It also may become a critical source of socio political information that can be used egregiously by government forces controlling an angry citizenry. Not an easy choice.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Internet The Voice of Protest !

Lead story,NY Times Feb. 3rd, has once again got me thinking about the role of the Internet as a voice of protest. One of my favorite organizations is Planned Parenthood. Remember when I was seven my mother dies from a botched abortion. In my blog Feb. 10, 2011 "On Abortion" was about that nightmare. The extreme right wing has been forever trying to put Planned Parenthood out of business. The Susan Komen Breast Cancer Cure Foundation decides suddenly to withhold its annual contribution of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood. Komen decided they could not contribute to P.P. because an entirely separate budget does abortions. Clearly the hand of the right wingnuts who oppose even "family planning" is at work here.

For the second time in a couple of weeks the rolling anger expressed through the Internet has forced a major issue on to the front pages. Even Mayor Bloomberg jumped into this bruha with a $250,000 donation. In California all seven of the Komen affiliates took exception to the decision. fact is that PP is the major Breast Cancer screening organization in the country. That simply means poor women have a place to go to get a checkup.

A short time ago there was an another eruption on the Internet over a Congressional Bill to start censoring the Internet over “copyrighted or intellectual ownership” of Internet published stuff. That outcry caused a bunch of GOP Congressmen to have their names removed from the Legislation. Then of course there is the whole Arab Spring phenomena. Many observers have said it was generated by the Internet and especially the social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc. I must admit that my early response was mostly doubt. Now I am working hard to try and understand this phenomena. Anyone interested in social change cannot afford to ignore this new informer agitator, organizer.

David Brooks, In the same issue of the Times, writes a column about how many young people have found a way to express themselves through the Internet. He voices a concern that these people are very good at expressing frustration with existing institutions. Brooks says, “This seems to be a moment of fervent protest movements that are ultimately vague and ineffectual.” He says the problem is they have no ideas as to how to replace these broken institutions. Brooks suggests that these people were taught to think for themselves. The result is they have no ideas to ground them in how to see alternatives to what is.

Brooks, unkowingly referred to people like me who were taught to think like Marxists. Yupp, that's right and that what helps me see how we might change institutions so that they are more responsive to the needs of the 99 percent.

“RUMMAGE THE PAST FOR A BODY OF THOUGHT THAT HELPS YOU UNDERSTAND AND ADDRESS THE SHORT COMINGS YOU SEE." Thank you David Brooks. That is precisely the kind of education I got as a child from my Socialist family. No I don’t want to exchange capitalism for what existed in the Soviet Union. That was not Socialism. That was an abomination called “the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. Just a new version of the old Czar Ivan the Terrible. No, I think of socialism as lived by the early Kibbutz settlers in Israel. Yes of course we could argue all these issues but it gives me a jumping off point for correcting some of the present days worst offenses against equal opportunity for all as suggested in the Constitution.

The Internet needs a large dose of discussion about alternatives to what is. The Arab spring is a good example of what happens when there is not any clear ideas about what to transform in the existing order of things to berth a new order. That is except the Muslim Brotherhood. They have a pretty good idea of what they want. The Tahrir Square demonstrators demanded Democracy. That’s nice. It doesn’t say how the society institutions are to function. That's what our Founding Fathers spent a couple of years figuring out. Even that has needed adjustments as an agrarian society became an industrial one. Yes I am becoming more understanding of the Internet as a voice of protest. Good but not enough. How do we make it a place where ideas for new more equitable ways of organizing society is presented as alternatives to the status quo?