I've just read Barack Obama's speech on race.
He makes the point that we haven't got past the issue and he's right. It looms over us like Poe's Raven. Only this time it's Obama who utters "Nevermore!" If there's been a politician in recent memory who wants to make race irrelevant, it's him.
I've met him twice and I'm convinced of his integrity on this issue. He could have completely disowned Rev. Wright, but he chose not to. Like the intelligent observer of history he is, Obama reminded his listeners that the Constitution itself originally ignored the question of race and slavery. Without the support of slave-owning aristocrats like Jefferson and Washington, there would have been no constitution and no United States of America. For those interested in the tortured intricacies of the 1780s and 1790s, read Joseph Ellis's excellent early history of the first decades of the republic "The Creation."
What was compelling about Obama's speech is that he didn't duck the issue by telling stories, throwing out the usual jeremiads about race relations or the venom that comes out of this subject. Here's what he said:
"Race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.
Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.
A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us."
Economic opportunity, institutional discrimination, lack of basic services in black neighborhoods. These have been long-standing problems that neither the Great Society programs of the 1960s nor Clinton welfare reform have resolved. Obama wisely gets us to refocus on these issues, instead of being distracted by rhetoric.
Why have 20 Chicago schoolchildren been shot to death this year? Why have inner cities languished while suburban development prospers? Why are there more than 1 million people incarcerated in the U.S. (many of them people of color with little education) -- an all-time high? Why do voucher programs gain support in cities? Have we, as a society, given up?
Obama noted that thousands of jobs have been lost in the inner cities. I can tell you from my own experience that Chicago, for example, once was a bastion of opportunity for people of every color. Men from Eastern Europe, the rural south and from all parts of the country knew they could get a job in a Chicago factory and mill. They knew that, despite the danger of the work, they could earn a decent union wage and retire in dignity. They knew the union would protect their right to work and not be exploited. I know because I saw it with my own eyes when I was reporting on the steel industry in the early 1980s. Black and Hispanic men worked decent jobs in the mills. A woman was president of the Steelworkers local that represented US Steel's South Works. A Hispanic man was president of another local.
Where did all of those jobs go? What happened to those families when all of the mills closed or relocated? South Chicago became a ghost town. I visited this once-bustling multi-ethnic neighborhood this past summer. Entire blocks are empty. The South Works mill, which occupied a piece of property larger than the entire Chicago Loop, was leveled to make way for a mega-development on prime lakefront property that for numerous opaque reasons hasn't gotten off the ground. There's more tumbleweeds there than the OK Corral.
So when Obama says we shouldn't shift the focus from the embedded and unique problems of race, I can respect that message. While I'm not sure yet if he's the right person to be president, he's certainly qualified to be a political surgeon general for his attempt to heal some old and troubling wounds.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
The Economics of Ecology: House Energy Bill Needs to Pass Senate
I was interviewing a major "green" West Coast developer this morning, and, as these things go, the conversation turned to economics.
The question I always pitch at anyone building green on any kind of scale is this: "What will it take to transform green building into widely accepted mainstream practice and how can it make housing more affordable?"
Over the years, builders, architects and developers have been pretty honest on the answer: "it's the economics."
This particular developer was taking a bold move to mandate that 20% of the new homes in his planned community needed to have solar electricity (PV) panels installed. The gross cost of these power producers is a about $24,000 per home. Subtracting state and federal rebates and the net cost is about $16,000. He's able to get a volume-purchasing discount from a major vendor, who always does the installation, so he's done everything he could at this point to make his homes make and conserve energy.
Here's the economics piece and it's a big one.
When Congress first started toying with tax incentives for alternative energy, it was a limited approach, mostly favoring things like ethanol (50-cent-a-gallon subsidy to producers), solar appliances ($2,000 federal tax credit) and sundry other items like energy-efficient appliances, windows, doors and insulation. This piecemeal legislation left out residential windpower and geothermal and is due to expire the end of this year. Without the subsidies, builders have no incentive to do any alternative energy, except where electricity is expensive and offset by state alt-e tax breaks, which tend to be most generous on the West Coast. Why offer a solar appliance when you could upgrade your kitchen or bath? Consumer economics is a fickle beast. We choose comfort and convenience over lowering operating costs 99% of the time. Until we see obnoxiously high energy bills (they are coming), we opt for granite countertops as our environmental plum.
It would seem that Congress was really on board with the alt-e subsidy program after oil prices hit $110 a barrel. Although there's a bubble in that market as traders flee dollar-denominated investments to oil and gold, it's clear that energy demand is not going away and Congress is doing a miserable job of developing alternative sources.
Enter the House of Representative's "Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008," which was passed last month under the capable leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It's a good bill that deserves to be passed by the recalcitrant Senate. Here are some of the highlights:
* Bumping up the residential credit for solar appliances to $4,000 from $2,000. A great idea. This credit would also apply to geothermal and wind power installed in homes.
* Extension of the 30-percent investment tax credit for fuel cell and solar research through 2016. Do we need to give tax break for R&D on the cleanest forms of energy? You bet.
* A production tax credit for alternative refueling stations and cellulosic ethanol. I was considering buying a Honda Civic that ran on natural gas, the cleanest car on the road. But there are no ng filling stations in Illinois. It's only available in California.
* Plug-in Hybrid Car Credit of $4,000. This is a break for those who buy a car that you can recharge at home. Although these vehicles are not available yet through mass-produced automakers, they will be soon. They can get up to 100 miles a gallon.
* Eliminating the SUV tax break and various oil industry subsidies. The US tax code was subsidizing the purchase of the dirtiest, most fuel-guzzling vehicles on the road in addition to an ungodly wealthy industry fueling them.
* Breaks for energy-efficient appliances, buildings, smart electric meters and conservation bonds.
I don't think this version will pass in its entirety. The Senate has logjammed this legislation in the past because it seeks to take away huge subsidies for the petroleum industry. While I don't think oil/gas producers need any subsidy whatsoever -- look at the price of their raw product -- it's always a deal breaker with the Senate GOP.
It's also disappointing that neither the House nor Senate has approved a minimum portfolio standard for alt-e. For example, one proposal would have the country producing 20% of its power from alt-e in 20 years. This is ambitious, but necessary. Until Congress opposes the open-ended use of carbon-based fuels, we're going to be in trouble.
What can you do? Call, write or email your Senator and ask him/her to endorse the House energy bill. We needed this legislation 30 years ago. They've had plenty of time to consider why it's vital.
The question I always pitch at anyone building green on any kind of scale is this: "What will it take to transform green building into widely accepted mainstream practice and how can it make housing more affordable?"
Over the years, builders, architects and developers have been pretty honest on the answer: "it's the economics."
This particular developer was taking a bold move to mandate that 20% of the new homes in his planned community needed to have solar electricity (PV) panels installed. The gross cost of these power producers is a about $24,000 per home. Subtracting state and federal rebates and the net cost is about $16,000. He's able to get a volume-purchasing discount from a major vendor, who always does the installation, so he's done everything he could at this point to make his homes make and conserve energy.
Here's the economics piece and it's a big one.
When Congress first started toying with tax incentives for alternative energy, it was a limited approach, mostly favoring things like ethanol (50-cent-a-gallon subsidy to producers), solar appliances ($2,000 federal tax credit) and sundry other items like energy-efficient appliances, windows, doors and insulation. This piecemeal legislation left out residential windpower and geothermal and is due to expire the end of this year. Without the subsidies, builders have no incentive to do any alternative energy, except where electricity is expensive and offset by state alt-e tax breaks, which tend to be most generous on the West Coast. Why offer a solar appliance when you could upgrade your kitchen or bath? Consumer economics is a fickle beast. We choose comfort and convenience over lowering operating costs 99% of the time. Until we see obnoxiously high energy bills (they are coming), we opt for granite countertops as our environmental plum.
It would seem that Congress was really on board with the alt-e subsidy program after oil prices hit $110 a barrel. Although there's a bubble in that market as traders flee dollar-denominated investments to oil and gold, it's clear that energy demand is not going away and Congress is doing a miserable job of developing alternative sources.
Enter the House of Representative's "Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008," which was passed last month under the capable leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It's a good bill that deserves to be passed by the recalcitrant Senate. Here are some of the highlights:
* Bumping up the residential credit for solar appliances to $4,000 from $2,000. A great idea. This credit would also apply to geothermal and wind power installed in homes.
* Extension of the 30-percent investment tax credit for fuel cell and solar research through 2016. Do we need to give tax break for R&D on the cleanest forms of energy? You bet.
* A production tax credit for alternative refueling stations and cellulosic ethanol. I was considering buying a Honda Civic that ran on natural gas, the cleanest car on the road. But there are no ng filling stations in Illinois. It's only available in California.
* Plug-in Hybrid Car Credit of $4,000. This is a break for those who buy a car that you can recharge at home. Although these vehicles are not available yet through mass-produced automakers, they will be soon. They can get up to 100 miles a gallon.
* Eliminating the SUV tax break and various oil industry subsidies. The US tax code was subsidizing the purchase of the dirtiest, most fuel-guzzling vehicles on the road in addition to an ungodly wealthy industry fueling them.
* Breaks for energy-efficient appliances, buildings, smart electric meters and conservation bonds.
I don't think this version will pass in its entirety. The Senate has logjammed this legislation in the past because it seeks to take away huge subsidies for the petroleum industry. While I don't think oil/gas producers need any subsidy whatsoever -- look at the price of their raw product -- it's always a deal breaker with the Senate GOP.
It's also disappointing that neither the House nor Senate has approved a minimum portfolio standard for alt-e. For example, one proposal would have the country producing 20% of its power from alt-e in 20 years. This is ambitious, but necessary. Until Congress opposes the open-ended use of carbon-based fuels, we're going to be in trouble.
What can you do? Call, write or email your Senator and ask him/her to endorse the House energy bill. We needed this legislation 30 years ago. They've had plenty of time to consider why it's vital.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Technology and Its Discontents
I've just spent a wonderful evening with friends and neighbors. The talk turned to technology and we eagerly discussed new features on phones that are not quite phones anymore. They are communication/organization/information devices. They all have their own names, like nymphs in Greek mythology: Treos, blackberries, Razrs.
Although we can certainly reach more people and obtain more information, has it made our lives any better? Have we put this technology to its best primary use: to make our lives less nasty, brutish and short?
In the medical field, there's plenty of technology, yet it's often poorly employed. Doctors have become test-centric -- mostly due to their fee for service structure -- rather than focusing on results. Will an MRI relieve pain if a doctor doesn't have full access to his patient's medical records? Why can't a doctor call up all that information as easily as he can get a reservation for his favorite restaurant on his blackberry? Is something wrong here?
Acccording to the US Food and Drug Administration, medical errors kill about 98,000 people a year. That's nearly twice the number killed in all of the auto accidents in the US every year. Can this number be reduced? Surely if you can get a microwave to beep when it turns off, you can get an alarm to go off when someone's getting the wrong medication or too much of it.
This is not a screed on the US healthcare system, which is broken in so many ways, this blog can't do justice to this argument at the moment. I'm talking about technology becoming our servant instead of our muse. It should be both, but it isn't.
In the conclusion of Henry David Thoreau's Walden, he tells us "do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old, return to them....Do not seek so anxiously to be developed, to subject yourself to many influences to be played on; it is all dissapation."
Although we can certainly reach more people and obtain more information, has it made our lives any better? Have we put this technology to its best primary use: to make our lives less nasty, brutish and short?
In the medical field, there's plenty of technology, yet it's often poorly employed. Doctors have become test-centric -- mostly due to their fee for service structure -- rather than focusing on results. Will an MRI relieve pain if a doctor doesn't have full access to his patient's medical records? Why can't a doctor call up all that information as easily as he can get a reservation for his favorite restaurant on his blackberry? Is something wrong here?
Acccording to the US Food and Drug Administration, medical errors kill about 98,000 people a year. That's nearly twice the number killed in all of the auto accidents in the US every year. Can this number be reduced? Surely if you can get a microwave to beep when it turns off, you can get an alarm to go off when someone's getting the wrong medication or too much of it.
This is not a screed on the US healthcare system, which is broken in so many ways, this blog can't do justice to this argument at the moment. I'm talking about technology becoming our servant instead of our muse. It should be both, but it isn't.
In the conclusion of Henry David Thoreau's Walden, he tells us "do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old, return to them....Do not seek so anxiously to be developed, to subject yourself to many influences to be played on; it is all dissapation."
Monday, March 3, 2008
Smart Home: Green + Wired
By day, I write about the US housing crisis, investing and all things personal finance. It's a never-ending panopoly of dilemmas, exhortations and criticisms of our savings-challenged culture.
When the sun goes down, I wear my bright green fedora and explore the world of sustainability, which is a fuzzy concept that we need to define further. What is sustainability?
To me, it's pretty simple. It's living in a place without destroying yourself or the environment. Right now, we're pretty good at the destruction and consumption part. You already know the story: We're using up clean water, air, land and other resources like there's no tomorrow. And if we don't start understanding what it means to be sustainable, we'll be dealing with a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Take American housing. For more than two centuries, it's pretty much been the same principle: You get a piece of land, build a house or building on it and hope for the best. Our cultural psyche, based on optimism, was infused with this idea that we (European-based folks) were somehow chosen to succeed, that the land would be bountiful if we were good and our home was a sacred place. This was the core of the American dream. This twisted principle was taken to the extreme and pursued at the expense of Native Americans and Africans, but that's another polemic for another day.
Now with home prices in one of the biggest housing downturns in US history, more than 4 million houses sitting unsold and foreclosures hitting all-time highs, we need to re-examine the myth of the American home.
One of my candidates for de-constructing the "American Home is a Castle" fable is Michelle Kaufmann (see http://blog.michellekaufmann.com/) , an Oakland, California-based architect. She not only embodies the best and brighest of her generation, her willingness to buck conventional wisdom may well propel her into a league of her own.
Michelle's philosophy is rooted in smart design. This architectural ethos goes well beyond "good" design. It delves deep into the root of what's wrong with American architecture. First of all, conventional homebuilding costs too much. Builders are locked into the finest and latest in 19th-century technology. The balloon-frame house may have been a cost-saving innovation back in the middle of the 1800s, but it's like building a computer with vacuum tubes. It will take nearly six months to build the so-called modern home -- even longer if it's a McMansion. Why not factory-build it in modules? The construction would take days once the site is prepared. Homeowners can then save big on labor costs. Kaufmann's homes are manufactured in factories and shipped to the site. One of her models will be on display at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry starting May 8. See it if you can.
Then there's the use of materials. Frank Lloyd Wright, for you archi-buffs out there, was obsessed with trying new materials and techniques. When he was designing his landmark Johnson Wax office building in Racine, Wisconsin, he designed elegant pillars to support the roof. They looked like Art Deco mushrooms. Local engineers refused to believe that they could adequately support much of anything, so he ordered a demonstration that piled tons of rocks on top of the columns. He easily won the test.
Like Wright, Kaufmann is trying to win over critics of her modular designs. After all, aren't modular homes really like trailers, critics retort? Nothing could be further from the truth. Modular design uses 50% to 75% materials and what's used is healthy, environmentally friendly and built to last.
Conventional building also has ignored energy-efficient design. As oil soars over the $100-a-barrel mark and all utility prices climb, this is an imperative issue in all buildings now. We can't afford to waste energy through buildings anymore. All of Kaufmann's homes employ efficient insulation, lighting, appliances, heating & cooling, energy monitoring, reduced/reused water systems and best of all, flexibility. Her houses can be designed on a website. Remember the Sears Craftsman homes that could be ordered by catalog and shipped to the site? Her homes are getting back to that concept, only the home is pre-assembled by module -- and then shipped.
There's a reason why the Kaufmann Smart Home is being assembled at the Museum of Science and Industry. The original building was once part of the 1893 Columbian Exposition (it was then an Arts Building), which heralded the dawn of the Second Industrial Age, ushering in electricity, motors and homes with incandescent lighting. On a small lagoon to the south of the museum was a Japanese temple on an island that inspired the fledgling architect Frank Lloyd Wright to re-invent architecture. Two of the other geniuses behind the great fair were Frederick Law Olmsted, the godfather of modern landscape architecture and Daniel Burnham, the legendary city planner and architect. All of these minds merged in this one place creating the foundation for our current built environment.
Now it's an innovative architect from Iowa who occupies the center stage of mold-breaking exhibition. And once again, I believe the world will pay attention in a big way.
When the sun goes down, I wear my bright green fedora and explore the world of sustainability, which is a fuzzy concept that we need to define further. What is sustainability?
To me, it's pretty simple. It's living in a place without destroying yourself or the environment. Right now, we're pretty good at the destruction and consumption part. You already know the story: We're using up clean water, air, land and other resources like there's no tomorrow. And if we don't start understanding what it means to be sustainable, we'll be dealing with a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Take American housing. For more than two centuries, it's pretty much been the same principle: You get a piece of land, build a house or building on it and hope for the best. Our cultural psyche, based on optimism, was infused with this idea that we (European-based folks) were somehow chosen to succeed, that the land would be bountiful if we were good and our home was a sacred place. This was the core of the American dream. This twisted principle was taken to the extreme and pursued at the expense of Native Americans and Africans, but that's another polemic for another day.
Now with home prices in one of the biggest housing downturns in US history, more than 4 million houses sitting unsold and foreclosures hitting all-time highs, we need to re-examine the myth of the American home.
One of my candidates for de-constructing the "American Home is a Castle" fable is Michelle Kaufmann (see http://blog.michellekaufmann.com/) , an Oakland, California-based architect. She not only embodies the best and brighest of her generation, her willingness to buck conventional wisdom may well propel her into a league of her own.
Michelle's philosophy is rooted in smart design. This architectural ethos goes well beyond "good" design. It delves deep into the root of what's wrong with American architecture. First of all, conventional homebuilding costs too much. Builders are locked into the finest and latest in 19th-century technology. The balloon-frame house may have been a cost-saving innovation back in the middle of the 1800s, but it's like building a computer with vacuum tubes. It will take nearly six months to build the so-called modern home -- even longer if it's a McMansion. Why not factory-build it in modules? The construction would take days once the site is prepared. Homeowners can then save big on labor costs. Kaufmann's homes are manufactured in factories and shipped to the site. One of her models will be on display at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry starting May 8. See it if you can.
Then there's the use of materials. Frank Lloyd Wright, for you archi-buffs out there, was obsessed with trying new materials and techniques. When he was designing his landmark Johnson Wax office building in Racine, Wisconsin, he designed elegant pillars to support the roof. They looked like Art Deco mushrooms. Local engineers refused to believe that they could adequately support much of anything, so he ordered a demonstration that piled tons of rocks on top of the columns. He easily won the test.
Like Wright, Kaufmann is trying to win over critics of her modular designs. After all, aren't modular homes really like trailers, critics retort? Nothing could be further from the truth. Modular design uses 50% to 75% materials and what's used is healthy, environmentally friendly and built to last.
Conventional building also has ignored energy-efficient design. As oil soars over the $100-a-barrel mark and all utility prices climb, this is an imperative issue in all buildings now. We can't afford to waste energy through buildings anymore. All of Kaufmann's homes employ efficient insulation, lighting, appliances, heating & cooling, energy monitoring, reduced/reused water systems and best of all, flexibility. Her houses can be designed on a website. Remember the Sears Craftsman homes that could be ordered by catalog and shipped to the site? Her homes are getting back to that concept, only the home is pre-assembled by module -- and then shipped.
There's a reason why the Kaufmann Smart Home is being assembled at the Museum of Science and Industry. The original building was once part of the 1893 Columbian Exposition (it was then an Arts Building), which heralded the dawn of the Second Industrial Age, ushering in electricity, motors and homes with incandescent lighting. On a small lagoon to the south of the museum was a Japanese temple on an island that inspired the fledgling architect Frank Lloyd Wright to re-invent architecture. Two of the other geniuses behind the great fair were Frederick Law Olmsted, the godfather of modern landscape architecture and Daniel Burnham, the legendary city planner and architect. All of these minds merged in this one place creating the foundation for our current built environment.
Now it's an innovative architect from Iowa who occupies the center stage of mold-breaking exhibition. And once again, I believe the world will pay attention in a big way.
Monday, February 25, 2008
The Miracle of the Oscars
I don't watch much television -- sometimes only if the Cubs are winning in the playoffs -- but when I do turn on the cranial vacuum tube, it's either to catch the State of the Union address (to see what evil lurks in the heart of men) or the Oscars.
The Academy Awards have long been a favorite of mine because I always root for the underdog (all Cubs fans have this defective gene). I'm not always on board with the name-brand actors, actresses, directors and producers. I want to see some unheralded talent come out of nowhere and grab the golden boy and have their lives changed overnight.
It happened to Diablo Cody of Lemont, Illinois, the former Ms. Brook Busey-Hunt. She went from an office drone and exotic dancer to writing a sparkling screenplay for "Juno," featuring the unknown (until recently) Ellen Page, formerly of Nova Scotia. The film has grossed more than $100 million, even though the plot was politically incorrect (teenage pregnancy) and neither the actress nor screenwriter had really worked with director Jason Reitman before. Both women were original talents who didn't exactly climb up the Hollywood ladder, nor did they spring out of some Disney marketing machine. Bravo to them and for someone who believed in their talent.
Speaking of Disney, the company's "Enchanted" sported two nominated best songs, bland ditties at best, although I'm sure Stephen Schwartz and Alan Menken got handsome paychecks for their mediocare offerings. But who won? A Dublin busker and a Czech pianist in a movie shot with hand-held cameras for less than $100,000. The romatic duo from "Once" stole the auric statuette from the Disney cartel with heartfelt harmonies and genuine emotion. The whole movie was a love affair based on music. When was the last time you saw that emerge from Hollywood?
And then there were the Brothers Coen, so relaxed in their raft of acceptance speeches that they seemed like they couldn't wait to get back to their hotels for a snooze. Their greatest revelation was that they were making movies since they were kids. One of their first epics was going to the Minneapolis airport to shoot a super-8 extravaganza. Along the way they gave us gems like "Raising Arizona," "Miller's Crossing," "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou" and stinkers like "Barton Fink" and "The Big Lebowski." The Minnesota-born Coens rarely follow formulas and they always present a side of American life few imagine. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis both heralded from the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Now the Coens are doing the state proud, yet again.
And how about "Taxi to the Dark Side," the documentary about an innocent Afghan cab driver tortured to death by the U.S. military? Notice in the trailer in the Oscar show the frozen image of George W. Bush and the filmmaker's stirring thank you and admonition that "we can turn this country around?"
There are real miracles to behold in this world and certainly the Oscars love to pat the movie industry on the back in this feast of self-love. Movies don't change history, but they certainly can depict it in a way we can understand it. "There Will Be Blood" was based on the brief California oil rush and the rapacious nature of robber barons. The original novel was by Sinclair Lewis. Then there was the Coen Brothers screenplay that was based on the book by esteemed writer Cormac McCarthy. Hollywood can go deep when it wants to -- and certainly doesn't lack surprises -- as long as the best minds in the business stay away from Hollywood convention.
Now for another miracle. The Cubs haven't won the world series in a century. As I scout their prospects during spring training in Arizona, believe me, the movie I have in mind would be a film I think more than 3 million folks would want to see. More merchandising opportunities than Star Wars or Transformers!
Hollywood: I have a script in hand. Producers, my new email is johnwasik@gmail.com. I would be happy to collaborate and I work fast. I'm not cheap, but I've been working on the story for about 40 years, so I know it inside and out. What's it about? A miracle that was a century in the making.
The Academy Awards have long been a favorite of mine because I always root for the underdog (all Cubs fans have this defective gene). I'm not always on board with the name-brand actors, actresses, directors and producers. I want to see some unheralded talent come out of nowhere and grab the golden boy and have their lives changed overnight.
It happened to Diablo Cody of Lemont, Illinois, the former Ms. Brook Busey-Hunt. She went from an office drone and exotic dancer to writing a sparkling screenplay for "Juno," featuring the unknown (until recently) Ellen Page, formerly of Nova Scotia. The film has grossed more than $100 million, even though the plot was politically incorrect (teenage pregnancy) and neither the actress nor screenwriter had really worked with director Jason Reitman before. Both women were original talents who didn't exactly climb up the Hollywood ladder, nor did they spring out of some Disney marketing machine. Bravo to them and for someone who believed in their talent.
Speaking of Disney, the company's "Enchanted" sported two nominated best songs, bland ditties at best, although I'm sure Stephen Schwartz and Alan Menken got handsome paychecks for their mediocare offerings. But who won? A Dublin busker and a Czech pianist in a movie shot with hand-held cameras for less than $100,000. The romatic duo from "Once" stole the auric statuette from the Disney cartel with heartfelt harmonies and genuine emotion. The whole movie was a love affair based on music. When was the last time you saw that emerge from Hollywood?
And then there were the Brothers Coen, so relaxed in their raft of acceptance speeches that they seemed like they couldn't wait to get back to their hotels for a snooze. Their greatest revelation was that they were making movies since they were kids. One of their first epics was going to the Minneapolis airport to shoot a super-8 extravaganza. Along the way they gave us gems like "Raising Arizona," "Miller's Crossing," "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou" and stinkers like "Barton Fink" and "The Big Lebowski." The Minnesota-born Coens rarely follow formulas and they always present a side of American life few imagine. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis both heralded from the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Now the Coens are doing the state proud, yet again.
And how about "Taxi to the Dark Side," the documentary about an innocent Afghan cab driver tortured to death by the U.S. military? Notice in the trailer in the Oscar show the frozen image of George W. Bush and the filmmaker's stirring thank you and admonition that "we can turn this country around?"
There are real miracles to behold in this world and certainly the Oscars love to pat the movie industry on the back in this feast of self-love. Movies don't change history, but they certainly can depict it in a way we can understand it. "There Will Be Blood" was based on the brief California oil rush and the rapacious nature of robber barons. The original novel was by Sinclair Lewis. Then there was the Coen Brothers screenplay that was based on the book by esteemed writer Cormac McCarthy. Hollywood can go deep when it wants to -- and certainly doesn't lack surprises -- as long as the best minds in the business stay away from Hollywood convention.
Now for another miracle. The Cubs haven't won the world series in a century. As I scout their prospects during spring training in Arizona, believe me, the movie I have in mind would be a film I think more than 3 million folks would want to see. More merchandising opportunities than Star Wars or Transformers!
Hollywood: I have a script in hand. Producers, my new email is johnwasik@gmail.com. I would be happy to collaborate and I work fast. I'm not cheap, but I've been working on the story for about 40 years, so I know it inside and out. What's it about? A miracle that was a century in the making.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Tax Reform Happening in Illinois
When I'm not hard at work at my day job, I work with the Citizens Action Project, which is trying to reform taxation in Illinois.
Yesterday at our community's Byron Colby Barn, we made history. We not only co-wrote an Illinois General Assembly bill that will make home assessments more transparent -- Senate Bill 2820 -- we heard a scintillating proposal on how to reform taxation in Illinois that benefits education.
First, we want to thank our ally Senator Michael Bond for introducing the bill in the Senate on Friday. He assures us that it has a good chance of getting out of committee and it's gotten the nod from Democratic party leadership. Sen. Bond immediately garnered the support of State Rep. Ed Sullivan, Jr., also the Fremont Township assessor. Both gentlemen presented details of the bill yesterday to widespread acclaim. Sen. Bond and Dick Hosteny worked together closely on this landmark piece of legislation.
As the originator and principal author of the bill, the Citizens Action Project, a grassroots, bi-partisan taxpayer's non-profit group, sees this as the first step in opening up the black box of assessments not only in Lake County, but statewide (and beyond). The act proposes to:
• Clearly state percentage changes in land and building value compared to the previous year
• Provides detailed components of the median neighborhood assessed valuation. How much are you above or below the average in your community? Our proposal forces assessors to tell you, so that you know how much your assessment varies from the local and township average.
• The bill will trigger direct disclosure from the assessor if your value is at least 10% above that of the neighborhood. All explanations must be in plain English.
• The bill requires that the County Board of Review provide you with all of the necessary information to appeal your assessment.
The object of this bill is to make assessors accountable, their methods transparent and their valuations fair. While it's far from perfect, it's a strong start and the only legislation to date to address these issues.
We wrote this bill with your help and the guidance of our white paper (see www.citizensactionproject.org), which we published in July of last year and presented to the county board. Despite its veracity and in-depth insights on the broken assessment process, the board has done nothing to remedy the situation. Minor changes were made to the Lake county assessor's website, but the process remains unchanged and the chief county assessor has avoided any significant reforms.
Since we wrote the white paper, we've seen assessments of our neighbors in the oldest part of Grayslake climb up to 200%. And neighbors from all over the county have contacted us telling us that our finding that the assessment process is opaque and unfair is right on track.
Take Action
What can you do now? Here's one of the letters you can send to your Illinois state and county representatives:
Dear Representative [insert last name]:
As a constituent of yours, I urge you to take an active role in supporting SB2820, The Homestead Assessment Transparency Act.
For the average homeowner in Lake County, the assessment practices which we endure have become intolerable. These practices, which vary from township to township, are totally hidden from the citizens and requests for explanations or clarifications are met with obscure, incomplete and unintelligible responses.
In short, we are kept in the dark. We need open, understandable and documented assessment standards.
You can help us reform assessment practices: SB2820 goes a long way in making the assessment process transparent. It mandates complete disclosure of assessment methods and tells homeowners if their home's valuation is above or below the average of their neighborhood. If it deviates 10% or more, the assessor has to tell us why -- in plain English.
I agree with the goals of the Citizens Action Project (www.citizensactionproject.org) in their efforts to bring Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency to the assessment practices within Lake County. The assessments on real property severely impact all homeowners. We need legislation that puts in place uniform, documented appraisal practices as well as oversight to ensure compliance to these documented practices.
YOUR NAME HERE
You Can Help
We are a non-partisan, non-profit citizen advocacy group. That means we lobby for you. We will be tackling numerous public-interest issues in the future, but we will need your help. You can help yourself in two ways: Through your time or a donation. While you can't deduct your donation, we will tell you how we are going to spend it. We’ve racked up some bills to do the white paper and we hope to go forward. We need to cover expenses incurred in our non-profit registration (still in progress), printing and other services.
If you choose to donate, please send a check to Frank Mynard, treasurer, Citizens Action Project, PO Box 932, Grayslake, IL 60030.
As for your time, you can either volunteer -- all of our directors and officers currently donate their time -- or become a citizen lobbyist. We have some form letters on our website so that you can contact county and state officials. Let them know how you feel. We have some suggestions for changes. Keep watching our website www.citizensactionproject.org for news and future developments.
NEW TAX PROPOSAL
Now for something completely different, well almost.
As if our new legislation weren't enough, we also heard an exciting new proposal from Ralph Martire, the executive director of the Chicago think tank Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. Martire's extensive presentation (I have copies and they are yours for the asking), covered the basic question of why state revenues aren't enough to adequately fund education and other essential services.
In Martire's view, although Illinois ranks fifth nationally with a gross state product of $600 billion -- greater than that of the single economies of Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, Greece, Portugal and Saudi Arabia -- it can't pony up enough money to meet its goals for education funding. Why? Because the state's revenues have not been keeping up with inflation-adjusted costs of running the government and education budgets.
What about the lottery and gambling revenues? They have been going into education coffers, but they were intended as a supplement, so the base revenues that were supplanted by gaming funds were not replaced.
Don't we endure high taxes as it is? Not really. Illinois' total tax burden, which includes local and state taxes, is 45th in the nation. It's the second-lowest tax burden in the Midwest. As you know, several states have been struggling with reforming taxation. Florida, Texas and New Jersey have all either enacted or considered major reform legislation.
Martire's proposal is contained in Senate Bill 750. It would make the state income tax more progressive. As a result, schools would get more than $600 million and there would be property-tax rebates for a portion of school levies on your tax bill.
There's much to discuss in this bill. On its surface, it's a tax swap, shifting the burden from local taxpayers to those with an ability to pay statewide. So instead of a "flat" state income tax, it would rise from 3% to 5%, a rate that would still place Illinois in the lower tier of state income taxation. Lower-income households would receive a tax credit.
Local funding for education would increase and things like the unfunded liability for the state pension funds would be paid off over several years.
While it's too soon to tell whether this bill has traction, it's innovative and controversial. Nevertheless, it's time to begin the dialogue. Study it yourself. Go to www.ctbaonline.org for more details. Let your elected representatives know what you think.
www.johnwasik.com
www.citizensactionproject.org
Yesterday at our community's Byron Colby Barn, we made history. We not only co-wrote an Illinois General Assembly bill that will make home assessments more transparent -- Senate Bill 2820 -- we heard a scintillating proposal on how to reform taxation in Illinois that benefits education.
First, we want to thank our ally Senator Michael Bond for introducing the bill in the Senate on Friday. He assures us that it has a good chance of getting out of committee and it's gotten the nod from Democratic party leadership. Sen. Bond immediately garnered the support of State Rep. Ed Sullivan, Jr., also the Fremont Township assessor. Both gentlemen presented details of the bill yesterday to widespread acclaim. Sen. Bond and Dick Hosteny worked together closely on this landmark piece of legislation.
As the originator and principal author of the bill, the Citizens Action Project, a grassroots, bi-partisan taxpayer's non-profit group, sees this as the first step in opening up the black box of assessments not only in Lake County, but statewide (and beyond). The act proposes to:
• Clearly state percentage changes in land and building value compared to the previous year
• Provides detailed components of the median neighborhood assessed valuation. How much are you above or below the average in your community? Our proposal forces assessors to tell you, so that you know how much your assessment varies from the local and township average.
• The bill will trigger direct disclosure from the assessor if your value is at least 10% above that of the neighborhood. All explanations must be in plain English.
• The bill requires that the County Board of Review provide you with all of the necessary information to appeal your assessment.
The object of this bill is to make assessors accountable, their methods transparent and their valuations fair. While it's far from perfect, it's a strong start and the only legislation to date to address these issues.
We wrote this bill with your help and the guidance of our white paper (see www.citizensactionproject.org), which we published in July of last year and presented to the county board. Despite its veracity and in-depth insights on the broken assessment process, the board has done nothing to remedy the situation. Minor changes were made to the Lake county assessor's website, but the process remains unchanged and the chief county assessor has avoided any significant reforms.
Since we wrote the white paper, we've seen assessments of our neighbors in the oldest part of Grayslake climb up to 200%. And neighbors from all over the county have contacted us telling us that our finding that the assessment process is opaque and unfair is right on track.
Take Action
What can you do now? Here's one of the letters you can send to your Illinois state and county representatives:
Dear Representative [insert last name]:
As a constituent of yours, I urge you to take an active role in supporting SB2820, The Homestead Assessment Transparency Act.
For the average homeowner in Lake County, the assessment practices which we endure have become intolerable. These practices, which vary from township to township, are totally hidden from the citizens and requests for explanations or clarifications are met with obscure, incomplete and unintelligible responses.
In short, we are kept in the dark. We need open, understandable and documented assessment standards.
You can help us reform assessment practices: SB2820 goes a long way in making the assessment process transparent. It mandates complete disclosure of assessment methods and tells homeowners if their home's valuation is above or below the average of their neighborhood. If it deviates 10% or more, the assessor has to tell us why -- in plain English.
I agree with the goals of the Citizens Action Project (www.citizensactionproject.org) in their efforts to bring Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency to the assessment practices within Lake County. The assessments on real property severely impact all homeowners. We need legislation that puts in place uniform, documented appraisal practices as well as oversight to ensure compliance to these documented practices.
YOUR NAME HERE
You Can Help
We are a non-partisan, non-profit citizen advocacy group. That means we lobby for you. We will be tackling numerous public-interest issues in the future, but we will need your help. You can help yourself in two ways: Through your time or a donation. While you can't deduct your donation, we will tell you how we are going to spend it. We’ve racked up some bills to do the white paper and we hope to go forward. We need to cover expenses incurred in our non-profit registration (still in progress), printing and other services.
If you choose to donate, please send a check to Frank Mynard, treasurer, Citizens Action Project, PO Box 932, Grayslake, IL 60030.
As for your time, you can either volunteer -- all of our directors and officers currently donate their time -- or become a citizen lobbyist. We have some form letters on our website so that you can contact county and state officials. Let them know how you feel. We have some suggestions for changes. Keep watching our website www.citizensactionproject.org for news and future developments.
NEW TAX PROPOSAL
Now for something completely different, well almost.
As if our new legislation weren't enough, we also heard an exciting new proposal from Ralph Martire, the executive director of the Chicago think tank Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. Martire's extensive presentation (I have copies and they are yours for the asking), covered the basic question of why state revenues aren't enough to adequately fund education and other essential services.
In Martire's view, although Illinois ranks fifth nationally with a gross state product of $600 billion -- greater than that of the single economies of Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, Greece, Portugal and Saudi Arabia -- it can't pony up enough money to meet its goals for education funding. Why? Because the state's revenues have not been keeping up with inflation-adjusted costs of running the government and education budgets.
What about the lottery and gambling revenues? They have been going into education coffers, but they were intended as a supplement, so the base revenues that were supplanted by gaming funds were not replaced.
Don't we endure high taxes as it is? Not really. Illinois' total tax burden, which includes local and state taxes, is 45th in the nation. It's the second-lowest tax burden in the Midwest. As you know, several states have been struggling with reforming taxation. Florida, Texas and New Jersey have all either enacted or considered major reform legislation.
Martire's proposal is contained in Senate Bill 750. It would make the state income tax more progressive. As a result, schools would get more than $600 million and there would be property-tax rebates for a portion of school levies on your tax bill.
There's much to discuss in this bill. On its surface, it's a tax swap, shifting the burden from local taxpayers to those with an ability to pay statewide. So instead of a "flat" state income tax, it would rise from 3% to 5%, a rate that would still place Illinois in the lower tier of state income taxation. Lower-income households would receive a tax credit.
Local funding for education would increase and things like the unfunded liability for the state pension funds would be paid off over several years.
While it's too soon to tell whether this bill has traction, it's innovative and controversial. Nevertheless, it's time to begin the dialogue. Study it yourself. Go to www.ctbaonline.org for more details. Let your elected representatives know what you think.
www.johnwasik.com
www.citizensactionproject.org
Friday, February 15, 2008
NIU Shootings: The Real Outrage
The recent shootings at NIU, in which six people died, is more than just a mere tragedy.
My condolences and prayers go to the victims' families and to the NIU community. I almost went to college there and know several graduates, so this is much too close to home.
Once again we wring our hands after yet another mad gunman walks in and shoots strangers in school for some unknown reason. Are guns too plentiful in our society? Sure. You can still buy them at gun shows and through any number of outlets. They are not hard to get -- even if you're mentally ill.
Then the usual bromides get trotted out. Video games are too violent. Movies are too violent. You can even play nasty little shoot-em-ups on your cellphone. Canada doesn't have this kind of gun violence. Neither does Japan nor England. Is it our culture? Although these crimes are still relatively rare in our population, they happen far too frequently. This is not domestic violence. It's deranged people killing at random people they don't know. We don't even have a word for this kind of violence. It goes so far beyond the bounds of rationality, most just fall back on calling it "evil." The Russians have a name for it: "soul sickness."
The bitter irony is that our top researchers are able to plot out "pleasure centers" through neuroimaging of the brain, create and prolong virility and even erase those unwanted wrinkles that start to appear after 30. We're even tinkering with creating synthetic life by reassembling DNA strands.
What's the point of all of this unless we can identify, understand and treat the homocidal impulse? Is there a trigger in the brain that allows us to murder without some form of conscience guiding us? How do we turn this switch off? How do we find the people who are most prone to do this?
Question for our theologians: At what point do we lose our soul and start taking other lives indiscriminately? For our politicians: Have we created a culture of war through the various military actions we've taken in recent years that these madmen feel justified in some way? And how about the social ecology angle: Is this violence inspired by the mass destruction of our planet? More questions than answers, of course, and it's little consolation to the families whose lives have been wrecked by these maniacs.
I know these questions are difficult. Yet they tear at the fabric of our society. The more technology advances, the more our souls remain thorough mysteries. We should stop torturing ourselves with these queries and dedicate research to finding the answers. Our collective soul depends upon it.
My condolences and prayers go to the victims' families and to the NIU community. I almost went to college there and know several graduates, so this is much too close to home.
Once again we wring our hands after yet another mad gunman walks in and shoots strangers in school for some unknown reason. Are guns too plentiful in our society? Sure. You can still buy them at gun shows and through any number of outlets. They are not hard to get -- even if you're mentally ill.
Then the usual bromides get trotted out. Video games are too violent. Movies are too violent. You can even play nasty little shoot-em-ups on your cellphone. Canada doesn't have this kind of gun violence. Neither does Japan nor England. Is it our culture? Although these crimes are still relatively rare in our population, they happen far too frequently. This is not domestic violence. It's deranged people killing at random people they don't know. We don't even have a word for this kind of violence. It goes so far beyond the bounds of rationality, most just fall back on calling it "evil." The Russians have a name for it: "soul sickness."
The bitter irony is that our top researchers are able to plot out "pleasure centers" through neuroimaging of the brain, create and prolong virility and even erase those unwanted wrinkles that start to appear after 30. We're even tinkering with creating synthetic life by reassembling DNA strands.
What's the point of all of this unless we can identify, understand and treat the homocidal impulse? Is there a trigger in the brain that allows us to murder without some form of conscience guiding us? How do we turn this switch off? How do we find the people who are most prone to do this?
Question for our theologians: At what point do we lose our soul and start taking other lives indiscriminately? For our politicians: Have we created a culture of war through the various military actions we've taken in recent years that these madmen feel justified in some way? And how about the social ecology angle: Is this violence inspired by the mass destruction of our planet? More questions than answers, of course, and it's little consolation to the families whose lives have been wrecked by these maniacs.
I know these questions are difficult. Yet they tear at the fabric of our society. The more technology advances, the more our souls remain thorough mysteries. We should stop torturing ourselves with these queries and dedicate research to finding the answers. Our collective soul depends upon it.
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