May 2009 Archives

Our federal government's (see...for all of my critics...I am not totally blaming this on Obama ) $1.75 trillion deficit for this year, and next year's $1.17 trillion deficit, started me on a search for perspective.  Well I found it and now I am more disturbed than when I started.

There is a decent chance Senator Bayh will actually represent his state and fight the Obama Care nationalization of our health system that appears to be the next major attack on the system of free-enterprize we used to know in the United States.  Senator Bayh surely recognizes the huge impact health care has on the once manufacturing dominant Indiana economy.  In fact, life sciences and bio-tech are two industries that are developing jobs that fit the world of the 21st century...and are happening in areas of Indiana such as Indianapolis, Lafayette, and Bloomington.

In addition, Bayh has become known as a moderate Democrat and today it almost seems shocking to think Obama actually almost placed him on the ticket as VP.  So, at a time when some reasonable opposition is needed within the majority party, a situation is percolating that could derail the voice of opposition to Obama Care.  The position of Susan Bayh, the Senator's wife, an attorney, and a director of one of the nations largest commercial administrators of health plans-WellPoint based in Indianapolis, has potentially weakened the ability of the Senator to stand up to the Obama supporters and stand out as a voice of reason.

In an editorial in yesterday's Indianapolis Star, this "Unhealthy Association" is discussed.  Two important take aways on this matter:

1. Nobody is inferring there has been any favors paid WellPoint due to Mrs. Bayh's directorship.

2. In the world today that seems to regard anybody earning more than $200,000 a year as part of the problem, needing heavy taxation and providing support for all of our other citizens, how will the fact Mrs. Bayh was paid $327,000 in compensation for her Director services last year going to play to the Obama Care crowd?

The only solution if Senator Bayh plans to represent his state and be ready to become a leading voice of reason in our federal government, is to eliminate this conflict before it grows and becomes a most likely distraction.  Mrs. Bayh needs to immediately resign her position on this Board and allow her husband to do what might become the most important thing he has ever done in public life...fight for an industry incredibly important to the stabilization and growth of his state in the midst of a recession that will certainly forever change the employment mix in Indiana.

Otherwise, the obvious conflicts will overshadow his support of the private insurance networks that are a part of the health system in America that make us the envy of populations from Europe to Canada.  Of course, any of us that are married to professional women know that you just don't go home and tell your wife she needs to give up her $327,000 job.  Hopefully, the former Indiana First Lady will see that she needs to serve a higher purpose by getting out of the way before this matter becomes a distraction.

America..the land of "American Idol" and "Housewifes of ________(fill in the blank)".  Do you prefer to watch these shows instead of reading and learning something new?  Apparently, for a significant number of people the answer is a resounding "Yes". 

The minority portion of American's who still crave knowledge from the print world, it seems to me, are better able to sort out illusion from truth.  The idea that it was on TV so it must be true does not become a viable response in the world of the literate.  The majority, absorbed in their "non" reality world are often taken in by the manipulation, so skillfully thrown their way, of the mainstream media. 

It is impossible to categorize the difference in those who are literate and those who are illiterate.  This is not a race, class, rural, urban, or faith issue.  Those groupings all have people from both sides of the literacy table.  There are 42 million American adults, 20% of whom hold high school diplomas, who can't read.  Yet the literacy that I am concerned about also involves the preferences of those who can read.  It is this portion of the technically defined, literacy class, choosing to be illiterate, that I am concerned about.

Why does this bother me?  Because a free-thinking nation, one that encourages creativity and individualism, will be increasingly hard to develop when its minds who are able, choose to be manipulated.  I challenge you to use your mind, read from all sides of different thinkers, form your own opinions, and encourage others to do the same.  While I do not consider this issue to be a political one, I do want to suggest that literacy will allow all of us to make informed decisions the next time we enter the voting booth.  Lets not automatically vote for the incumbent because his/her ads looked better during "Are You Smarter Than a Ffith Grader".  Lets not just vote for the candidates who speak the best.  Lets all make it a point to decide what we believe in by being well informed.  Then dig a little deeper and make voting the great responsibility that it is.

The greatness of our nation will be depending on us all to become much more literate. 

Does it bother anybody how much our lives are now dependent on something that we can't see?  How we take for granted everyday that we will be able to live our lives intwined with this thing called the Internet? 

Unlike the old days, if that saw did not work you could fix it.  This morning our internet is moving at a snails pace and I feel helpless.  I can't see it and all I can do is tell our IT guy who comes back with an explanation that involves packets of data being stalled on the information superhighway.

Nobody can see it, few can describe it, we just know it makes us unhappy.  We all have work to do and we just can't get out a sharpener and fix the saw.

We are dependent on that we can't see.  Actually, as I think about it, this is similar to faith.  If you are a person of faith you also are dependent on something you can't see.  We take that unseen dependence for granted. 

I doubt I will ever be able to elevate my acceptance of the internet to the same level.