Bob Howitt Blog

TRUTH IN TRAVELOGUES                                                       Christmas, 2024

 Number three in a truly discontinuous series that began decades ago.

It had been several years since I logged the 600 mile (one-way) trip to be with my daughters and their families on the Big Day itself. Not yet being into the world of podcasts, I knew that something else would be needed to keep me alert as the miles and hours went by.

The answer, as it has frequently been throughout my long life, was, no surprise, not something bought at the pharmacy, but …writing. Not sentences (I was going 70 mph most of the time) but key words or short phrases scribbled, carefully I assure you, on the paper held by the clipboard resting in the vacant passenger seat.

In the interests of providing some sort of organization, as I fear creative flow will be challenging (more like absent to be honest), I have distributed the words and phrases into four buckets: those integral to the road traveled, those whose subject was brought to my attention visually, information and insights from the various radio stations which found my ear, and items which are purely mental.

The Road:

• Cracker Barrel (no local food options were available wherever the heck I was when overcome by hunger) in its accompanying store (where you have to fight through the crowds to get to the eating area) sells every conceivable product to tell you all is good, just like it was back in the day.
• McDonald’s bathrooms are guaranteed to be quite clean and are readily available to an old guy in need. In one, I found a wrapper for “DUDE flushable wipes, made in Mexico.”
• What is the reaction when Google Maps says, “stay on this road for 340 miles”? Yipes!
• Ah the charm of a Waffle House: no pretense, a smiling server, inexpensive, decent food.
• Interstate 81 is full of 53-foot trucks; you contemplate the terminology of tare and payload.
• Orange cones for highway construction sites, normally ubiquitous these days, were stunningly absent at the Christmas holiday.
• A note about this interstate highway system: historically the most “efficient” route (definition: best way for those with money and distant residences to get to their jobs) quite often equated to the destruction of minority neighborhoods. Misuse of eminent domain was the partner of engineering recommendations. Maybe the country is as racist as its critics have long maintained.
• Watson Trucking: family owned since 1941 is its inscription. Hard to believe and admirable.
• The Pink Cadillac sits outside the restaurant of the same name.
• Climbing lanes to high speed, restricted access roads: please, would the entering car either accelerate or be clearly passive, not in between. Establishes clarity of intention.

Visual:

• Megawarehouses for Amazon, Dollar General, Tractor Supply, Lowe’s: it would be interesting to label their contents as outsourced, nearsourced, or insourced.
• Lindt chocolates has an outlet store: I almost went off the road.
• Warner Art Glass: the source of my Xmas gifts to one and all.
• Roanoke College: where Daniela Velasquez coped with a PWI and came out a winner.
• The billboard in North Carolina urges “better pay for teachers; they deserve it.” Yes!!!
• The gun shop whose existence reminds me of what one liberal said to his friends, “you should get armed so the fight is more even.” (Note: this was said before the inauguration.)

Radio: What I heard (with a few author’s comments added)

• The creation of Kwanza celebrations was 12-26-66.
• Portapotty for a better poop: available at WalMart. (A real commercial!)
• Fundamentalist religious stations have the clearest reception.
• Sanctuaries can be prosecuted.
• Trump is to be inaugurated on MLK day (January 20) and will be president when the country turns 250 on July 4, 2026). Words fail me.
• The year 2024 was the hottest ever; the planet is warming up prior to – its demise?
• China now makes more electric cars than the alternative.
• Kars for Kids must be the most played and memorized jingle ever made.
• The eight million illegals who came in during the Biden administration have cost taxpayers $200 billion. Relatedly, pieces of the dismantled wall are available on E-bay.

• Biden’s pardons are spitting in the face of the victims; even Democrats are annoyed.
• BIN: Black Information News, a clear signal with equally clear facts and opinions.
• On 12-26-04, the tsunami killed 230,000.
• USCCA: US Concealed Carry Association, an advocate for responsible gun ownership, although it has no ability to differentiate.
• 3 ROV (Rock of Virginia); a grumpy old drunk impersonates Santa Claus: hilarious!
• The Israelis have killed four journalists.
• Denzel Washington has been baptized and has become a minister.
• 12-26-91 marked the collapse of the Soviet Union, which Putin wants to reconstitute.

Mental:

• Local sourcing of farm food products means higher cost; the scale economics provided by the interstate highway system are lost. If you had an enhanced sense of community as a result of local sourcing, would you pay the price? (A post-inauguration comment: if tariffs ultimately resulted in both higher prices and more better-paying domestic manufacturing jobs, same question: would you pay the price. Philosophy and pocketbook, which wins? Relatedly, how many can afford to be philosophical?)
• Entrepreneurs who are geographically based and successful create a living but more importantly, a life for themselves, for their families, for their communities — or they start a business specifically for the purpose of selling it eventually.
• When the regulators add another layer of rules, the big companies can spread its cost over a large number of units; the little guy cannot. It is not a stretch to connect this to the homogenization of every interstate highway exit area: brand names galore.
• God bless the Indian owners of the local Qwik Mart. They faithfully set aside — whether for one day or a week—my daily fix: the “New York Times” and the “Wall Street Journal.”
• Unlike the domestic manufacturing based “Hot Companies” of yesteryear, today’s rich businesses (Meta, Google, Apple, Microsoft) generate huge piles of cash whether their reported earnings are up, down, or sideways. Legal attacks on their business practices elicit billion dollar fines, which are paid with less angst than the everyday person feels at a grocery store check-out counter.
• Climate change is bringing a renewed examination of our economic metrices: is GDP the right measurement, where does happiness fit in and a steward’s responsibility to the planet.
• Is filling out a form for a desired profile of a prospective college roommate a good thing? What happened to curiosity; is the desire for diversity only performative?

• Can Taylor Swift be so singularly good that Target features her book as a way to get people to its stores and hopefully purchase the excess inventory which plagues the company.
• The brutally wide inequality in wealth is almost impossible to attack without substantive, punitive legislation, aka a series of “remedies” (See “The Color of Law”) By comparison, income differentials could be attacked if educational preparation was significantly better. Current test results are so bad one would think that improvement was impossible to avoid.
• Over time, won’t changing demographics make at least the diversity part of DEI a practical necessity for all organizations. In less than twenty years, there will be no ethnic majority.
• Can one scream about income inequality as they purchase another delivery of stuff from Amazon, whose founder has a $500 million yacht and fights attempts at unionization.
• Is that tweak in my hamstring on its way to a serious situation or will ice, Advil, a wrap, a massage, and stretching keep me on the basketball court.

RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR SURE                                                         THE END … almost …

P.S. CHRISTMAS itself with the family was great fun!

 

 

JOSE SANTIAGO: AN INTROSPECTIVE VIGNETTE PRE-ELECTION, as Written by an Anglo Friend

In 1990, my father Carlos came to the United States from Colombia.  As we say within the family or with trusted friends, “he took the scenic route.”

Like the vast majority of those attracted to this country for many years, Carlos wanted to work and save enough money to bring my mom Angela and my sister Maria north to live with him as a family.

By 1995, from his job as a factory supervisor able to accrue overtime, he had accumulated the necessary funds, with full recognition that Mom and Maria would be taking a more circuitous and expensive path to reunite with Carlos.

 

Not long after they arrived in the USA, Mom became pregnant. I was born in 1996, an American citizen from my first breath.

 

Economically, our four-person family unit was self-sustaining, as much a function of motivation as any special skills other than the experience gained by Carlos. We always believed that in the USA, if you want a job, you can become employed. Issues of whether the wage is fair we left to others.

 

Culturally it was a struggle to find our footing. My parents were content with paying the bills, relaxing with Spanish television, with nary a thought of trying to fit in with those outside their increasingly Hispanic neighborhood. My sister Maria and I encouraged them to sample the many, and more diverse, places accessible on the subway but mostly they were uninterested. Their lack of confidence in using English was certainly a factor; neither their jobs nor their limited socializing required speaking English.

 

Maria, who was born in 1988, was able to enroll in non-credit ESL classes at the local community college, eventually earn an Associates degree in Liberal Arts and obtain an okay job in an office.  She was convinced that being fully documented would have meant a position more consistent with her capabilities. She was right for sure.

 

From the outset there was pressure on me at home to learn Spanish. At the time, I did not understand why: school was almost entirely in English. Down the road, I understood: they wanted me to always appreciate their culture, or is it “our” culture? Besides, being bilingual would be an important advantage in the future.

 

I went to a neighborhood public school that, to my parents, did not seem very demanding. They thought about sending me to a private school, but that cost too much, or to a more rigorous public charter school, but the teachers union’s political allies had prevented the latter from obtaining a charter to open up nearby. Truth is, like most guys I hung out with, I drifted through school, especially high school – if I got my homework done and did reasonably well on tests, I knew I would pass with a decent GPA. Soccer and girls were my true points of focus.

 

To my parents, neither of whom had advanced beyond high school, my attending college was a given, even if they knew little about the American education system other than what Maria had experienced. Looking back, perhaps if I had a high school guidance counselor who actually knew me and to whom I could have gone for advice, things would have been different.

 

As it was, my first awareness of the whole college admission process was coupled with serious sticker shock. The bottom line was simple: going to a public college was financially mandatory, as was lessening the overall high cost by attending a community college for the first two years.

 

At times, community college felt like grade 13. Nonetheless, the academic requirements were a clear step up, with another jump when I transferred to a four-year public university. I knew, without much research, that a Bachelor’s degree with a Business Administration major was what I and my parents wanted.

 

Following graduation in 2018, I did not immediately get a job that I mistakenly thought came attached to a college diploma. It is an understatement to say this was a big and painful discovery. So I did a little of this and a little of that. I was hard-pressed to understand why I was not more gainfully employed. If it was having gone to a public university, having a nebulous major, and recording only a 3.2 GPA were the reasons, then why were classmates with comparable credentials moving into decent positions.

 

Then, in 2021, after George Floyd was murdered, the Human Resources door in corporate America opened wider for minorities, admittedly moreso for African Americans than for Hispanics, but still there was interesting activity on the hiring front. I reactivated my dormant application effort and landed a job as an assistant to a project manager. Part of me realized that the interview was a bit on the soft side, but you did not hear me complaining.

 

It took a while, a couple of years in fact, but I came to realize that my ostensible peers in the company had attended much better schools for their K-12 education. And they had degrees from better known universities. Not only did they know stuff that was not immediately recognizable by me, I was not receiving any training to pull me out of my deficit. Moreover, the cultural awkwardness evident from the first time I walked into a meeting where I was the sole Hispanic showed no signs of dissipating. Even in non-job conversations, I could not mesh with those around me.

 

In year three, it was clear that the corporate commitment to DEI had waned; with hindsight, the earlier activity, including the hiring of yours truly, seemed like a check-the-box exercise.

 

By this time, I had come to dislike my job – even with its nice paycheck—and with it, corporate America in general. I quit … and nobody at the office cared.

 

Neither did anybody I know get in my face and push me to apply someplace else. I guess my attitude was that companies were all alike, which, in retrospect, is not something I could possibly have known considering my limited experience.

 

In my defense – if you think my action was rash – I have asked myself whether additional credentials were needed: CPA, law degree, certificate of some sort, etc. And yes, I probably should have majored in something more specific than Business Administration, something which could connect with a definable/portable skill set.

 

Considering the distaste I had developed — maybe prematurely — for corporate life and not being eager for another dose of institutional learning, the above education paths were not appealing to me.

 

Instead, I went back to some of my side hustles — I did Door Dash and Uber for a while. Was it enough to live on? Only if I lived at home and was frugal, not easy to accomplish when you are feeling a bit depressed and tempted to drown your sorrows.

 

I could have gone on FanDuel I guess and bet on soccer matches. I could not trade stock options (something a classmate had told me about; it sounded like a way to win only if you could afford to lose, not my situation) or I could have peddled drugs and been disowned by my family. In a positive vein, I could have become an ESL tutor, or a mentor to an aspiring Jose, while trying not to be openly disappointed in my situation.

 

Did my parents understand my decision to give up a good salary, a number that was a multiple of their combined earnings? No. Do they constantly ask why – periodically, not daily, thank goodness.

 

There are times when my father, who has been relatively tight with his money, talks about opening a small restaurant, staffed entirely by our family. He means well, giving me a productive occupation, but all I can think about is why did I go to college if this is to be my job. Maybe I could persuade him to buy a fixer upper that could be a combination of our own residence and a rental unit.

 

Both my sister Maria and I think that Carlos secretly would rather put his savings aside for an inexpensive retirement home back in Colombia. Mom would rather be here with her grandchildren, of which currently there are none, much to her dismay.

 

In addition to Maria’s job situation, more or less a consistent source of irritation for her, my sister’s emotional state includes trying to figure out where her heart and head are concerning the American she has been going with for the past two years. Is she attracted to him for all the “normal” reasons or as a way to resolve her status — for free as a loving wife, or is it more like a philosophical statement on behalf of cultural diversity. Mom is eager to hear Maria’s wedding bells, while trying not to show it so explicitly that everything could boomerang.

 

On occasion, we all debate immigration policy, not a surprise.  Carlos, who worked long hours and waited many years to get documented, is dismayed that current border crossers often can readily get free benefits – debit cards, food, lodging, maybe work visas — not available back in the day. My mother does not disagree. My sister is more sympathetic, and simultaneously irritated at me, in her words, for not taking advantage of my birthright.

 

As for me, I read an immigration descriptor as being a “trilemma:” the majority of people want an enforceable border, businesses simply want workers for economic reasons, and humanitarians want to help those in need, whether it be economic or personal safety. Try to create an immigration program that embodies all three components and satisfies everybody!

***

Enough introspection: I close with the typical query, “now what?” That is both my question and that of my therapist as well. (Don’t ask if the latter is money well spent and please do not tell my parents that I am seeing a shrink!)

Comments by the Writer:

We know that irrespective of future immigration, Jose’s story is one component of the big picture of important demographic change in this country. The projected crossover year when there will be no ethnic majority is 2045, not far away.

You would think this unfolding future would cause companies, and organizations in general, to gradually become more diversified in their employment, matching what is already happening with their customer/patient/client list.

Maybe this will happen but how many minorities find themselves in Jose’s position: frustrated thinking about past decisions and circumstances that are not rectifiable, with a clear experience of being uncomfortable in corporate America. To wax philosophical, will demographic reality as a force for broader change, inclusive of corporate/organizational training commitments that would be pertinent to a Jose, remain less attitudinally meaningful than the existing imbalance in wealth. Older white people have the lion’s share and probably are not eager to see, or advocate for, generalized acceptance of the new demographic world.

As somewhat of a digression, since what follows is not directly connected to demographic numbers, I am struck by the accuracy of the statement which speaks to the qualitative nature of change, “Education is the Civil Rights issue of our Times.”  

Ignoring higher education (of all types), it is obvious that K-12 education, and the funding thereof, is critically important. If we cared about the education being received by students in urban public schools, which are heavily minority, we would provide more AP courses and a greater number of skilled guidance counselors.   

If Jose had received a competitive K-12 education – which should be that civil right, had a better understanding of college pre-enrolling, and had an appreciation (from somewhere) of the world of corporate America, including its uneven commitment to both training and DEI, maybe he would be a different person today.

Then too, perhaps Jose simply lacked the work ethic of his father.

Should he have persevered at his corporate job, including identifying a colleague who could have counseled him on how to fit in the system, how to avoid the loneliness which Jose undoubtedly was feeling.  Should he have been more curious as a young person, become more aware of ways of thinking not inherently part of (or maybe simply not apparent) his immediate neighborhood? After all, to echo sister Maria’s point about not having taken advantage of his circumstance, Jose was free of documentation issues, unlike her.

Jose might respond, “I am not free of being a minority.”

This is a true and important statement, and equally true, it does not come close to fully explaining his individual situation.

Nor can society avoid major criticism for its dysfunctional K-12 education system, or corporate America, for its lack of training.

 

The car engines kept exploding; in fact they were killing people.

While the engine manufacturers recognized that an engine was involved, they insisted the engines were not relevant to the problem.

So the companies making car doors reinforced their product, providing some protection if the engines exploded, which they continued to do. The stronger doors did not work.

Maybe if the tires were better, fatalities would be less. The newly fabricated tires had no impact.

Are the people who sell engines duly registered with the proper authorities. Not all, but a much higher percentage than before. The engines kept exploding anyway.

To be fair, there were a few people who ventured the opinion that the engines might be key to the problem.  Their voices were somewhat on the quiet side as apparently to be critical of the engines was construed as being anti-science.

Driving lessons were made more rigorous, a good idea for sure given the rate of auto accidents.

And drivers were instructed to be more consistent on the octane of the gasoline they used.

Alas, the engines refused to stay unexploded.

Agreement was finally reached: make the steel stronger, and the windows, and the seat cushions. Require the brake to be depressed in order to press the Start button to turn on the car.

I’ll be darned if the engines did not keep exploding.

A group was formed, Victims of Exploding Engines. It traveled the country with its message of engine safety. Now a lot of people own cars obviously, which led to that persistent attitude people have about everything from airplane crashes to being robbed at the supermarket – it won’t happen to me. “So sorry about the demise of people you loved but I have other issues that I need to deal with, like why is my Amazon package not arriving on time.”

The engines just kept exploding, even when the federal government department in charge of auto safety issued a warning to all drivers.

FINALLY, FORMERLY QUIET VOICES BECAME LOUDER, RISING TO A CRESCENDO.

THEY SCREAMED “IT’S ABOUT THE ******* ENGINE!”

 **

Here is a partial list of the country’s response to mass school shootings:

Armed teachers … Bulletproof backpacks … Survivor manuals … Red Flag committees … Redesigned schools … More security officers at schools … Increased number of regulated gun dealers … Greater awareness of 3-D printed guns … Legal consequences for parents … Better reporting of bullying … More attention to the needs of understaffed rural schools … Increased number of relevant non-profit organizations … Greater frequency of op ed essays in leading publications … Increased scrutiny of the NRA’s governance structure … Intensive reading of the Constitution … Publicized comparisons of American shooting statistics with those of peers … Increased awareness that police departments need more training.

NEWSFLASH: IT’S ABOUT THE ******* GUNS!

 

Our phone number is 737-732-8968 (RespectYou). We answer the phone with a human voice, because it is a human. Better yet, come visit. We’re open 24/7; please bring your own coffee.

Respect University (RU) is located at 842 Peachtree Lane, Fredricksburg, Virginia 07683.

Surprise: RU knows that the cost of college is like a big deal to you.

In analyzing university website information, an unemployed Ph.D candidate calculated there were  4,874,123 possible combinations of student situations and financial variations.

RU takes a different approach. Because it wants you to learn with us, sleep with us, eat with us, and have fun with us, we are simplifying the numbers.

This is what it costs the RU student taking the standard five-course regimen: $60,000 per year.

Please keep reading to understand this number and how it is to be financed. Patience.

Note: the figure above is THE number. It includes your fine education, a decent room, and edible food; there are NO other costs, no bogus fees dreamed up by anal accountants.

What about health insurance you quickly ask? Good question. If you give us money for that purpose, we keep none of it. It all goes to the rapacious insurance company and is therefore not part of the cost of being a student at RU.

Strong suggestion: you should secure your own health insurance coverage so that the number remains a zero in the above $60,000 figure.

OK, no way are you going to write a check for $60,000 to attend our wonderful university. Correct. Here is what you are going to pay and where the money comes from:

The RU Scholarship:     $10,000.             Not to be repaid.

Outside Scholarship:   $4,000                 Not to be repaid.

Pell Grant:                          $8,000                 Not to be repaid.

State Grant:                      $6,000                 Not to be repaid.

Federal Loans                  $6,000                 To be repaid after you graduate.

Private Loans                   $6,000                 To be repaid based on the loan terms

Family                                 $20,000               To be repaid with undying love and by graduating

After you have completed three years at RU and are a student in good standing – you’ve paid your bills, are on track to graduate at the end of year four and have not done anything outstandingly stupid, your fourth year will be FREE.

RU offers 24 majors. In semesters one, two, and three, every RU student takes the same courses. Semester four is comprised of introductory courses relevant to a student’s major. Semesters five through eight are all about the student’s major.

A professor is assigned to each student when they enroll at RU. That professor will be your mentor, counselor, advisor, and confidante. Yes, if the match is documentably horrible, it will be switched.

RU has no adjunct professors; all its professors are on three-year renewable contracts.

There are no fraternities or sororities at RU. RU has no offices and clubs that are staffed so we can pontificate about different issues. Instead, RU encourages students to form the types of associations they want.

RU offers four sports: tennis, volleyball, basketball and indoor soccer. They share a single large gym (yes, it’s a complicated schedule). The mixture of genders in each sport is solely a function of what students decide. RU is not part of the NCAA and normally does not compete with other schools.

RU does not believe in throwing smoke about future job success. As the noted scholar

Yogi Berra said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” 

What RU does believe is that its graduates will lead fruitful lives. And when you brag about earning your diploma at Respect University, we will try not to blush.

P.S. If your immediate reaction is to think about various what ifs (if my mom brings me food, can you knock something off the price of RU; if I commute and don’t need a dorm), you are putting yourself in a different mental place than the student we are seeking. The latter is a person who wants to be with us full-time, who – if necessary – will learn some flexibility. In all likelihood, the incoming student will have been a bit coddled growing up (not you of course, but maybe your friend and definitely your roommate), a character flaw (of your parents actually) which either will be rectified here or you will be less than totally happy. At Respect University, we want joy, coupled with rigor.

 

It is difficult to succinctly summarize the prior Negative Data Observations. Below is my emotional take, some of which connects to specifics in the three parts of NDO; some of which would require extended essays.       

What is the common message in the following attitudes: resistance to gun reform legislation, non-differentiated approach to COVID, no continuous substantive restraints on social media, acceptance of minimal educational standards, obliviousness to the economic consequences of single parent births, excessive cost of college?

Answer: we really do not care about children, especially if they are not white or are not affluent. 

 

 

 

(7) Erosion in the American Dream.

*Can anyone who works hard get ahead regardless of background? 2012: 53%, 2016: 48%, 2023: 36%. The latter number drops to 28% when the poll respondent is under 50. It also drops to 28% when the respondent is a woman.

*Will you earn more than your parents: 55%, down from a peak of 62%.

*Will you get a professional degree: 47% expectation, down from 56% in 2000.

*Perhaps relatedly, 47% of adults younger than 50 say “no kids.” In 2018, it was 37%.

In a worldwide survey, 40% agreed that it is “hard to have hope.”

(8) Poverty in the United States seems impervious to substantive change.

*For the last sixty years, it has been in the 10-15% range.

*The current poverty threshold for a one parent/two kid situation is $23.578. For two parents/two kids, it is $29,678.

Definitions of poverty are subject to much interpretation; in turn, the overall topic of welfare and how it is administered is integral to the discussion of Universal Basic Income.

 

 

(4) Two huge costs.

*Healthcare insurance more than four times what it cost in 2000.

A brutally expensive category that cries out for systemic policy changes.

*Apartment rents in the past 20 years up 135% compared with personal income up 77%.

*Number of rental units under $600/month: 7.2 million compared with 9.4 million in 2022.

*Median age of a first time home buyer is 36; in 1981, it was 29.

More corporate ownership of apartments and more higher income renters add to upward pressure on rents.

(5) The USA has leadership in many of the ways a person can die.

*Gun-related homicides are 22x those of European Union countries.

*Car crashes are 4x those of Germany.

*With 330 million population, it has 70,000 overdose deaths; European Union, with 440 million, has 5,800.

*An American is 2x as likely to die from a fire.

*The USA has 2x the deaths of those under 15 years of age.

There is something seriously wrong with American society and, inter alia, the total triumph of individualism over community, despite people giving loud lip service to the latter as a desired societal characteristic.

(6) People are more anxious.

*27% have relevant symptoms, more than triple that of five years ago.

An upward trend existed before the pandemic; there is also more recognition of symptoms.

*Adding to anxiety: sales of AR-15 guns exceeded 1.8 million in 2023; in 2006, the number was 400,000.

On average, every American has a gun; mass shootings continue. Legislative reform, and judicial support thereof, is needed. The majority, but the mere mention of NRA opposition makes cowards of politicians.

*Below a Bachelor’s degree, the impact of AI could be 50%; with a Bachelor’s, 30%.

AI is a relatively new addition to the list of anxiety producers. Estimates vary widely, but the anticipated job loss in certain categories from the impact of AI could be 25-50%.

*Gen Z is 28% in favor of either a democracy or a dictatorship. The Silent Generation is 98% pro-democracy.

*90% of young people are unlikely to join the military.

A transition toward wanting a strong leader (left or right) who will dictate to us seems evident.

*Coupled with anxiety is a “who cares” attitude. Only 70% of people respond to the conventional population survey, compared with 90% in 2014.

*In 1994, 6% had distaste for both political parties; the number is 27%.

Closely connected to the absence of any belief in control is stopping out of the political process.

*The health impact of loneliness is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day and greater than the impact of six alcoholic drinks per day.

I failed to note how the researchers figured these data points out, but there is intuitive directional logic to their conclusions. Next they must calibrate the distinction between living alone and loneliness.

 

Bobhowittbooks.com/?page_id=22

(1) It starts with the family.

*1980: 77% of children lived with married parents; today, it is less than 60%. Some 25% of children live in a one-parent home; this is a higher percentage than any country with relevant data.

It is difficult to detect anything positive from these data.

*62% of white children living in poverty areas have fathers mostly present; 4% of black children are in a similar situation.

It is easy to claim racism and end the discussion; the broader view would talk about drug laws, housing regulations, highway construction, childcare and family formation.

(2) How do young people spend their time and the results thereof.

*54 minutes per day on TikTok, 49 on YouTube, 33 on Instagram, 31 on Facebook.

This seemingly ties to anxiety, to low readership, to disappointing educational outcomes.

*If not proficient in reading by grade three, six times less likely to finish high school. Approximately one-third of students up to and including high schoolers are proficient.

*In 2010, 37% of 6-17 year-olds read for pleasure; today the number is 28% (46% for 6-8 year-olds, 18% for 12-17 year-olds).

*White adults spend 0.29 hours per day reading, more than double that of blacks and Hispanics. 38% of white teenagers are constantly on-line; 54% of blacks, 55% of HIspanics.

It is hard to discern anything positive in these trends. (Ironically, a recent uptick in digital reading is attributed to TikTok.)

*ACT scores in 2022 were 19.5 out of 36, with declines in every section; this is a 30-year low.

All standardized tests produce a similar conclusion. P.S. K-12 attendance currently is down, test scores are as noted, yet GPAs are up. Coddling anyone?

*Of 100 college enrollees, 60 will graduate; 20 will be chronically underemployed.

*42% say college is worth it, 56% say no; a reversal from the 2017 response.

The data connect to a series of factors, beginning with the absurd cost of college and the attendant debt.

(3) Where do people get their news.

*TikTok is around 30% for those 18-29; 3% for those over 65.

*The number of newsroom employees, all categories, was down 57% in 2020 (versus 2004), probably worse today..

Instant news gratification is predominantly, shallow, non-nuanced.

 

 

In the January to June 2024 timeframe, I collected a series of data points from articles and op ed pieces published in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and USA Facts. Being in somewhat of a negative frame of mind these days, it is not surprising that the resulting observations matched my mood. The format for what will be a string of blogs is as follows: an overall heading pertinent to the connected data points, the data points, and an observation.

I would welcome an analogous set of data points that could be lumped under the heading of positive trends; sorry, the stock market rise does not count unless you are willing to deeply analyze its positives and negatives.

Not here, but in the ensuing blogs, there is an implicit (and unanswered) on-going question: which factors are foundational, which are consequences; how do you separate causation and correlation. You may properly ask how often is the country’s racial history embedded in the data point. If you eventually believe that change is necessary for any of the data point factors, you may ask where does the necessary motivation come from.

 

 

For a really long period, Green has looked down on Orange, kicking it out of town whenever it needed somebody to blame for whatever was troubling Green. Orange would move to wherever, only to find the seemingly nice Green neighbor down the road required little provocation, none actually, to become un-nice.

But time passed and it seemed that maybe things would be almost okay. Unfortunately, when Orange and Green thought they were about to collaborate on progress toward real peace, someone would intervene, aggressively, and Orange and Green would be forced to return to their respective tribes without any resolution.

Eventually, Orange had this idea that maybe it would be good to have a place that was basically all Orange in terms of governance structure. They got in the ear of some Green personnel who had experience in drawing lines on maps for different countries, all of them a great distance away from where the decision-makers were having tea.

It’s true of course, for Orange to have its own abode, the land would have to be removed from ownership by Green. Whatever. Orange’s long and deep sense of its own history identified the appropriate spot, and with the support of enough Greens to do the transaction, it was done.

Unsurprisingly, those within the overall Green universe who were similar in their taste for tea but otherwise unmoved by the case for an independent Orange, were somewhat irritated.

Over the years since the creation of a home for Orange, there have been a bunch of attempts to hold hands and sing “We are the World,” but history has repeated itself: somebody would fire away and then it was back to the “us vs. them” dilemma which has plagued civilization, especially Green and Orange. The latter had the better of it when it came to physical interaction, even adding to the geographical scope of Orange, ticking off Green even more.

It has not helped matters that some in the Green community have been open, even in their textbooks, in advocating for the complete elimination of Orange, a strategy previously attempted elsewhere at great cost and with mixed results.

So it is fair to describe the Green-Orange relationship as somewhat on the tense side.

Finally it happened: some extreme Greens decided to act out, in rather obscene fashion I might add, with Orange of course being the target. In response, Orange’s leadership flipped, figuratively repeating the famous movie line: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any longer.”

Orange went after Green big-time. In the eyes of some, ultimately they did not appear overly concerned with collateral damage if Green persisted in putting its bad guys, women and children in the same location that Orange wanted to erase.

Alas, it would appear that the wounds are now so deep, the identification of moral high ground so tenuous, the ability to remember atrocities so ingrained that it will be a very long time, if ever, before Green and Orange will be able to sit and have a conversation steeped in mutual trust and good tea.

P.S. At various points in the saga of Green and Orange, but not recently (she has passed away), a certain Ms. Henrietta Szold was involved.

She was an interesting blend: bright; multilingual; a traditionalist –in her mind, but not in actuality –as to the role of a woman; a pragmatist: able to size up situations as to what needed to be done and how to make it happen; a poor public speaker yet able to speak effectively to an audience of those interested in the direction she was proposing; a disappointed non-Mother: her one chance at marriage and abiding love, in her mind anyway, thwarted by a professor who in retrospect regarded her as only an intelligent friend, finding his happiness in the arms of a much younger female.

Szold’s adherence to one branch of Orange, albeit an extremely important one, led her to believe that the language unique to Orange should be required of all those in leadership positions. She was fearful of a slippery slope, that those who differed with her philosophy would ultimately lose the sense of what made them Orange.

If she were alive to comment on the current horror show between Green and Orange, she might say, with tears falling down her cheek, that her early dream of bi-nationalism was no longer even worth mentioning. And she would be rallying nurses, doctors, and anybody else who could provide help for those injured in the latest chapter of the Green-Orange relationship.