RESTAURANT PROTOCOL

We have this unusual environment. Lots of indications that the economy is moving ahead nicely, regardless of the empty storefronts which dot the landscape. Most germane to this modest tutorial is that restaurants seemingly have ceased training their servers, apparently out of gratitude that the latter have graced the establishment with their sheer presence.

Into this void I offer a few observations and suggestions.

*My little group, typically four, has arrived a touch later than the lunchtime rush or a touch early for the evening crowd. Of, let’s say, 20 tables, there are only four occupied, all in the same section. The hostess attempts to see us in that area. I say “No, could we please sit over there.”

We know what is going on – seating for the convenience of the server and/or to keep servers from complaining to the hostess about fairness in seating. However, I believe that as the paying customer who keeps both server and hostess employed, I get to choose where we sit.

*We still have mouthfuls of the entrée in our mouths when the server asks if we will be wanting anything else. Impolite on one count, absurd on a second count considering the timing, and self-defeating on a third count as it reduces the chances of ordering dessert. Which means a lesser check and a proportionally lesser gratuity.

*Adding insult to the above error is actually putting the check on the table at that time, usually with the silly verbiage, “no hurry, whenever you are ready.” Don’t hurry the customer and deny you are doing so simultaneously.

*On occasion, I pay for my meal in cash. The cashier would assist the server and the customer at the same time by giving change which recognizes the expectation of a gratuity being left on the table. If the check is $29.50 and a $50 bill is used in payment, the cashier should not return a $20 bill and two quarters. They should return a $10, a $5, five one-dollar bills and two quarters. This way the customer can leave a gratuity anywhere from four to nine dollars (ignoring less likely combinations) without having to flag down the server for the run to the cashier to break the $20 bill.

*It is not unusual for a meal to have a portion beyond the reasonable capability of an ordinary sized person to consume it comfortably. Which means a box for carry-out is in order. The server should not make any suggestion about said box until it is crystal clear that a need exists.

*One way for a server to understand the dynamics of each table is to have rotating eyes when walking through their section, even while on their way to a specific table. This observation technique simply gives them a fast picture of where each table is in their unique combination of eating and conversing.

*A contemporary twist on serving is the couple, or more, whose attention is their phones, not the food or the conversation. Bring their food as fast as possible. They are not there for a relaxing meal.

*Unless there is a specific signal from the customer, do not clear their dishes while others at the table are still eating. It is another silent indication that the server would like to move the table along; the common verbiage of, “it will give you more room” is nonsense, unless of course the customer feels the need to put both arms up to their shoulders on the table.

AN INCREDIBLY SHORT PRIMER

You must be conversational about professional sports. Here are some succinct descriptors:

The Jets are perpetual losers

              The Giants are always better than their record

              The Yankees must win the World Series or the season is a failure

              The Mets suck

              The Knicks are better than the Jets

              Nobody cares about the Nets

              The Rangers last won something called “The Cup” a hundred years ago

              The Devils play somewhere else

              The Islanders likewise play somewhere else, but nowhere near the Devils

              The area’s various soccer teams have names nobody remembers

A Few General Things to know:

              Instead of gifted and talented programs, everybody gets a trophy

              Nobody reads

              Adults do not return phone calls

              Everybody laments income inequality and buys the next new phone

              Everybody hates Facebook and uses it constantly

              A progressive is somebody who reaches into an affluent person’s wallet to retrieve money

              A conservative has a security guard for his wallet

              A moderate is conflicted: do I hire a security guard or do I voluntarily cough up my wallet

              Diversity = DEI = BIPOC = an increased number of African Americans being hired

              Immigration = Hispanic = Mexican = illegal

              N …. cannot be said or spelled out, unless you are African American, in which case it’s fine

If you are the contemplative sort, these are some interesting questions. What if —

              Moms spent as much time reading with their daughters as doing their hair and nails

              Dads spent as much time reading with their sons as working on the former’s car

              Big churches were open to the community seven days a week

              Playgrounds were unlocked sun up to sun down

              The 40 acres and a mule program had been implemented

              The number of workers fixing the roads was proportionate to the number of cones

**

In time, probably faster than you expect, you will be adding multiple entries to the above list.

You might even have a thought or two about why you decided to move to the “Big Apple,” its nickname that involves some story about New Orleans.

Most significantly, you will come to realize that understanding New York City is not synonymous with knowing America, with all its greatness, warts, and beguiling unfilled promises.

*As has been widely reported, Russian computer geeks under the control of dictator Putin are playing games with all kinds of (mis)information to screw with peoples’ minds and perceptions of the world. According to a deeply troubling analysis of QAnon (“Pastels and Pedophiles,” by Mia Bloom and Sopia Moskalenko) Americans are nine times more likely to fall for Russian nonsense pertinent to QAnon  than their counterparts elsewhere in the world (15.3% versus 1.7%). “One cause … is that U.S. education lags behind Europe in teaching critical thinking and social media literacy.”

“Need a doctor but don’t want to miss the Rutgers game? Call Telemed.” Let’s see, if you suddenly need a doctor, that would imply something – uh, like important. Do you think a quickie before kick-off suffices. Or is it that maybe the pending game is not expected to excite you enough and you want doc to write a scrip for some enhancement.

*If you had a class of 100 minority future engineers, you could reasonably hold out the prospect of something close to 100 really good jobs, such is the shortage in this country. If you had 100 minority high schoolers majoring in football, basketball, or soccer, holding out the prospect of more than one of them earning a living from their sport does a disservice to the data. The advertising and messaging comparison is just the reverse, of course, as all the glamor accrues to the sport, not the engineer.

Perhaps this is another trick by which white America gets to be entertained without fearing that the people on the stage will become serious competitors for jobs, money, power, recognition.

*Not to be a doomsayer, but can any amount of communication, workshops, public chest beating, and mea culpas rectify the historical chasm between what the country said it was/is in its wonderful Declaration of Independence and what it was/is. If I am worth ten-to-twenty times what you are in part because of our historical hypocrisy, and there is no difference in our weekly paychecks or prospects (which in reality are skewed against the lower net worth individual), the chances of our net worths becoming equal are equivalent to the odds of winning the lottery. Reparations anyone?

*Once upon a time, it was assumed that college students had limited financial means, excluding of course those members of the lucky sperm club, equipped with fat wallets from birth. Dorm rooms or nearby apartments, rented out by not the most avaricious landlords, were closer to being described as “spartan” than they were to “fancy.” The affordability of college remained an issue, as it always will, but a reasonably remunerative job (and absence of silly spending) in the Summer could take a student or their family a long way toward paying tuition and room and board.

In the ensuing years from the above baseline, taxpayers – through various federal financial aid programs — were happy to provide modest grants and immodestly-sized loans to aspiring collegians. Whether the students were net ahead on the college cost equation is unfortunately not clear. It seems that tuition increases soaked up the availability of incremental student funds.

What was clear is that students were willing, persuaded, cajoled into being oblivious to the mounting discrepancy between the historical punch line – “a Bachelor’s means a million dollars more of income in your lifetime” and what that means in terms of after-tax, after-debt, after-stress happiness.

Now, flat screen televisions, spacious suites, and other amenities are part of the sales pitch of universities attempting to survive in what has become a market share battle for the declining number of students in the college pool. None of this basically non-academic stuff comes free of course, producing the oddity at some state schools that room and board can exceed tuition (alert notice: keep this in mind when people start talking about free tuition). In all cases, the high cost of college housing enables off-campus landlords to lift their rents. 

The economics of owning said housing have not been lost on Wall Street or corporate America, both of whom have increased their portfolios of barely off-campus student housing.

If you do a flyover of this story, you see that students are borrowing from taxpayers to pay investors (who typically know every legal and tax advantage in the books) for the ability to pursue a degree which no longer has the catchet of former days. In fact, a diploma is increasingly simply a means to the end of a job, the irony being that a lengthening list of employers do not even require it from an applicant.

Is it any wonder that a thorough examination of the business known as higher education is inevitable in the real world, not simply in barely read treatises from think tanks. A flattening of high school graduating seniors, changing demographics, and increased reflection on this thing called “the meaning of life” all contribute to the angst felt by small private liberal arts colleges with light endowments.

*It appears that at my apartment complex, there is an unwritten rule: every person who takes a leisurely walk must be blabbing into a cell phone, pushing a stroller with a munchkin in it, or hanging on tight to a leash that a rambunctious dog is trying to stretch past his owner’s patience. Breaking the code is an old guy with a basketball tucked under his arm, apparently focused on getting past this traffic in order to simply shoot some hoops.

*White America’s in-grained, not necessarily articulated, life narrative is no longer operative – all the thrashing about is centered on that uncomfortable truth. Add the power of social media and the physical isolation of the pandemic and you have QAnon able to stay alive even as its various conspiratorial predictions come to naught. (Forgot to mention that clever people have monetized aspects of QAnon.)

*Note: obviously these observations are random; otherwise, seemingly related thoughts would be logically grouped, perhaps with bullets to emphasize whatever verbiage ensued. Not happening.

*If “track is black,” as is sometime said, then suburban cross-country meets on a Sunday morning are a predominantly white activity. Twenty towns with tents and lawn chairs and little diversity, Volvos and Subarus and Beemers in the parking lot, wine undoubtedly being chilled at home (not allowed in the park) for Mom and beer for Dad when he drops into his NFL chair for eight hours of watching football.

*Is there a course somewhere that pounds into a respondent’s head that the first words out of their mouth must be, “that’s a great question.” I mean at least there could be some distinctions made: some questions are totally inane, some suck for other reasons, some are incredibly brilliant – especially those which include “why” in the query. Enough with the default response.

*”She is serving really well.” “He is the high scorer.” “The Lions are doing a great job on defense.” Inevitably these statements by sports broadcasters are followed by “so far.” Uh, they have to be so far unless there is a tricky way of inserting the future into what has already happened.

*I have always fantasized that Clint Eastwood would regard Facebook with total disdain, shooing its presence off his lawn and out of his daily life. Now the “Wall Street Journal” has published a four-part series that is summed up thusly by the authors: “Facebook’s own research lays out in detail how its rules favor elites; its platforms (especially Instagram) have negative effects on teen mental health, its algorithm fosters discord; and that drug cartels and human traffickers use its services openly.” The most charitable description comes from a Facebook executive: “We created the machine and we can’t control the machine.” (Aren’t there great sci fi movies and futuristic novels about good ideas run amuck. Wait, that frequently describes politics as well; there might be more dead bodies from implementers of seductive philosophies than there are from outright criminals.)

*For a long time, I have noticed that in small towns or mid-sized cities, the two biggest buildings belonged to a college and a hospital. But only recently did a bright observation occur to me, namely that the two institutions had several characteristics in common: the service they provide is terribly overpriced, the outcomes they deliver are disappointing by any reasonable metric, and structurally their entire systems – higher education and healthcare—need to be taken apart and put back together in a more customer-friendly manner.

*Speaking of commonality, what is shared by shared by discussions of abortion, charter schools, and immigration?  One can win the debate on merit and not change a single person’s mind. Maybe vaccines belong with the above trio of topics. And QAnon.

*Once in a while, it’s useful to look up from the daily negativity – you know the long list of American transgressions, both home and abroad – and mention a handful of rather unique characteristics:

a nation of multiple minorities is evolving in front of the world’s eyes, the same nation is one which consistently heads the list when people from elsewhere are seeking jobs, it is quite possible in that place for people to call the President or the cop on the block an idiot and suffer no real repercussions.

P.S. Even those in the United States who delight in the trashing their country are not exactly rushing to airports to cling to airplane wings in an attempt to go live elsewhere.

*Any grant-seeker knows that mentioning the word “community” evokes nothing but positivity. Ditto for any reference to “collaborations.” Maybe “bonding” should be on that short list of – ‘whatever the non-profit leader is saying must be good; let’s give them some money.” Does anybody think of the relationship between a drug dealer and an addict as bonding or a collaborative effort or involving a community, even though the descriptors fit. The point? No word should be accorded a characteristic without some thought.

*The stock market soars, regardless of how many financial historians claim that our nation’s printing press economics makes no sense or that we are incurring debt payable by future generations or that we are increasingly beholden to trading “partners” like China. P.S. If debt is meaningless, do I still have to pay my mortgage?

Anyway, we’re not smiling. In “We Weren’t happy before the Pandemic” (New York Times, 8-22-21), author Esau McCaulley suggests we were previously reluctant to recognize what we were giving up in the pursuit of whatever. Now, “the pandemic has disabused us of the illusion of time as a limitless resource and of the false promise that the sacrifices we make for our careers are worth it.”

Meanwhile, as supporting evidence (or confirmation bias) Anna Lembke (Wall Street Journal, 8-14-21, “Digital addictions are Drowning us in Dopamine’) notes that new cases of depression worldwide were up 50% from 1990 to 2017 (the biggest increases in areas with the highest incomes) and Americans self-reported as being less happy in 2018 than in 2008. Again, pre-pandemic.

*If you draw a line to show the techno/social media penetration of American life, let’s say at a 45-degree angle, and then draw a line to show happiness or educational accomplishment or median income, you would see no such lines in the vicinity of that of techno/social media. In fact, all three lines of possible outcome metrics are flat. If you knew nothing, you might say that the techno/social media boom has been a waste (except to a relative handful of incredibly enriched venture capitalists and investors). Or you might say this is a case of meaningless non-correlation. From a high-level standpoint, it is hard to make the case for its benefits, which is a totally crazy statement given the ease with which we can find out …. stuff. So pick your metric. If I can build a house faster in a factory than on-site, does not the house still need a satisfied occupant to give the thumbs-up to the revised process.

*I was thinking the other day that reacting to the pain in my infected finger was analogous to coping with a weird noise in my car.  You walk into the fix-it place and you immediately owe the proprietor a fee for simply having crossed the threshold of his or her enterprise and asking for some degree of analysis. In the case of my finger, it was a mere $315. Not to worry, taxpayers en masse provided $210.56 through a Medicare adjustment, and that same payor sent $83.79 to the insurance company. Don’t cry for the latter; they make it up elsewhere. I was on the hook for only $20.65.

The procedure itself, a somewhat painful lancing of an infection, was less expensive than walking in, specifically $245. Of this, the Medicare adjustment took care of $90.78 and the Medicare payment to a Big Insurance Entity was $123.73 I had to cough up $30.49. (Hope all these numbers add!).

Do you wonder why everybody from a neophyte financial analyst to a public health policy wonk to an aging frequent user of medical services regards this convoluted billing approach as, uh, rather strange. What is the actual cost of what took place! With my car repair, I know what the hourly labor rate is for the mechanic who fixes everything and I have a fairly good idea as how much of that rate finds its way into his or her paycheck. Impossible with the purchase of healthcare services.

*Let’s see – alcohol, cigarettes, gambling; marijuana – the latter two on their way to full, “controlled” availability.  What is the underlying message? “Please don’t engage in these terrible sinful pleasures, but if you do, be careful not to overdo it – call an 800 number if you have a sudden understanding that your excess is about to cost you — let’s see, your health, your family, your house, whatever.”

What nonsense buried in a truth, like the saying in a Chinese fortune cookie that is otherwise edible. Each of these purveyors of the above quartet relies in their economic model on people overdoing it, and government is quite happy to collect its taxes without doing any accounting for the remedial costs involved; those show up in somebody else’s budget. Will prostitution eventually be legalized and join this happy collection of no-nos.

*To be continued on another day of high wattage inspiration!

*Does it seem that Summer has just begun but some people are already thinking September really is not far away. Maybe the reason, for me, is that the Hispanic Resource Center of Northwest New Jersey is supposed to open then, and we need to identify and train committed volunteers for this groundbreaking initiative, of which I am Chairman.

Maybe you are looking ahead, because September means the beginning of another semester. Whether you love your school or not, whether you have the typical concern about life after graduation, you probably want to get the diploma as rapidly as possible.

We like that idea too. As always, our grant check gets issued when you send a copy of your class schedule and your college bill.

*Without going into a deep discussion of the tax code, an exercise every bit as headache producing as listening to a group of teenagers where every other word is “like,” it is worth noting that the screaming headlines about income tax rates paid by different people are more than a touch misleading. For example, taxes on capital gains are only applicable when an underlying asset is sold. Other than that circumstance, the appreciation of an asset, whether your house or a billionaire’s stockholdings, does not hit the annual tax return, so mixing apparent wealth and income tax rates is shoddy analysis.

Having said that, it is still nauseating to see how tax code loopholes can be manipulated by wealthy people and their highly-paid accountants/lawyers. It’s equally sickening how influential lobbyists can be in making adjustments to proposed taxation legislation that would tend to more fairly balance competing interests. And it’s really upsetting how incestuous the whole situation is, with many individuals who formerly had federal government positions, both elected and appointed, immediately becoming lobbyists upon leaving their prior jobs.

Relatedly, Richard Wright, most known for the classic Native Son, said it well in his The Man who Lived Underground: “Excessive wealth enables one to live psychologically distant from the realistic processes of society.” He also observed a similar psychologically distancing is involuntarily imposed on those at the other end of the wealth spectrum, those affected by persistent unemployment and oppression.

I do know one ultra-wealthy individual; in fact, we have an annual lunch. Whatever the particular conversational subject was on a recent occasion, his comment was stunning, “You know, I have not been in a store in ten years.” Maybe advanced age was a factor, maybe he had already bought everything he needed, maybe he is exclusively an on-line customer. But what struck me was simply that despite being a good and generous guy, he did not live in the “realistic processes of society.”

P.S. Rich does not equate with bad nor of political persuasion: read the “Mansions” section of the Friday Wall Street Journal: you will see well-known individuals on both the political left and the right. To tar everybody with a singular brush provided by the loudest mouths of the moment is always perilous.

*On admittedly a different subject, but as further evidence of the need for deeper thoughts than available through twitter (or twits), which person went to Guatemala and told the people there not to come to the United States? A Trumpian statement made by Vice-President Harris. Ah yes, the world is trickier than a campaign stop in Oshkosh or a 140-character summation of policy recommendations.

*Demographics, long a favorite topic of the undersigned (reflected years back in our Project 2050, which at the time of formation was the anticipated year when there would be no ethnic majority in this country), is now a consistent topic of conversation. The bottom line is simple: the population of the United States is barely growing in total. Coupled with replacement level birth rates (per women of child-bearing age) for the major ethnicities, this portends a period of slow economic growth, regardless of the money supply that keeps ballooning courtesy of the Federal Reserve.

A further data point concerning demographics is that for the first time in the country’s history, there is a slight decline in the population aged 20-64. This leads to a labor force that is expected to grow at half its historical rate; already, there are widespread shortages of workers, and not simply because of decisions fostered by the stimulus checks. Simultaneously, there is an opportunity for poorly educated individuals to acquire specific skill credentials that can double their incomes.

*Coming back to the slow population growth scenario, the way to alter that outlook is to institute a proactive immigration reform plan.

Perhaps there could be multiple components with clear start dates and sunset provisions where relevant for transition reasons: (1) a clear and doable path for those with specific skills to enter the USA and immediately be put on the road to a green card (2) a clear set of tighter rules on family-based immigration, (3) a fixed percentage of the country’s total population allocated to the total of those with temporary protected status and those who are asylum-seekers (using an overall percentage permits negotiations within that limit), (4) a fixed percentage for work visas, (6)) the issuance of green cards to all DACA individuals, (6) a one-time opportunity for those deemed undocumented because of overstayed tourist visas to pay $10,000 per visa-holder to be put on a green card path, (7) a change from six-month tourist visas to three months, and (8) strong enforcement of border rules and widespread communication that the above set of rules cannot be changed for 20 years.

Amnesty will be the scream of those on the right. The left will pick on a couple of things it finds distasteful. Compromise anyone!

The equation is, in one sense, simple: this country’s growth is dependent on “importing” people.

It was only two days until August when I realized that I had not begun the creation of my monthly birthday card.

Maybe that’s why I awoke at a ridiculously early hour. Or perhaps it was envisioning a mom and two kids navigating the chaotic highway system of Houston. Or the spectre of mandatory masking returning to our lives.

But enough about me, what about you – have you figured out a strategy for staying reasonably sane in these unprecedented, challenging, mentally draining times.

Thank goodness that no planning is necessary for today: it’s okay to simply let loose and have a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Peace, Bob

http://bobhowittbooks.com/?page_id=22

The View from the Third Seat on the Left, Observations from the Camden Community Bus Tour

The building rises majestically (relatively speaking), at the end of the most golden street in the city. It offers a great view of both water and a neighboring city’s skyline. It brings to mind a shiny new toy, perfectly constructed, after a multi-decades long drought when developers never thought such an enterprise made sense in an impoverished city.

But the magic elixir of tax credits and self-interest – immediate payment to all those people involved in a real estate closing –wrought their miracle: the Hilton Garden Inn.

The two mismatched sides of the house at 755 Walnut Street beg for repair. Many years ago, the fix-up job was supposed to happen, beneficiary of a multimillion program that has long disappeared into the garbage can of political history. Adjacent to the house is a vacant lot; like its several thousand counterparts throughout the city, it can be either overgrown with vegetation or a repository for whatever junk needs to be disposed of by somebody with no vested interest in the property.

It is two miles from the Hilton to 755 Walnut. It might as well be 200 miles. There is no connection between the two, even though they are part of the same governing body: Camden, New Jersey. And the financial contributions to community life from the companies benefitting from tax credits are a  rounding error.

Hilton lives in a strip of politically connected entities, including Rutgers and the Cooper Health complex. The nationally known charter management organization KIPP and the locally highly publicized LEAP Academy charter school both live comfortably within this world.

The 755 Walnut world is that of local development entities which struggle to get their voices heard, who can afford their social and racial justice programs only because much of their cost base is free – donated items, or of minimal cost – community gardens.

The police are quite evident in the Hilton world, presumably on guard for white collar workers in the nearby office buildings who are hatching plans to toss their bosses or themselves out the window after years of frustration and boredom in their jobs. The more difficult areas of the city receive less attention. The disparity continues on one’s demise. When somebody does die in the Hilton world, they get a gravestone which is properly maintained; their peer in the 755 Walnut world is lucky to receive any physical recognition that is not quickly overgrown with disrespect.

In the Camden school district a few years back (data is slow in coming), there were three (not a misprint, 3!) high school graduates who were college ready based on the conventional metric used to make such judgements. In response to this tragedy, whose impact is multi-generational in terms of both financial outcomes and psychological damage, education reformers added a new type of school to the mix.

Camden Prep is what is called a Renaissance school, like its competitors KIPP and Mastery (the latter is oriented to turnarounds, particularly in a Latino sector of Camden dominated by public housing).

There are three features of a Renaissance school worthy of note: ten-year contracts with the district, not with the state; community orientation in terms of catchment area; and a requirement to construct new school buildings. Even as the district has shuttered some schools (had they been charters or Renaissance schools, they would have been closed many years before, as the new type of schools lives on results, not on history), there are still too many seats to fill, and there are more seats on the way, including those at a huge new district school.

The result, and the solution, will be more hand-to-hand combat to enroll new students. Those with less robust course offerings or fewer sports options will be challenged to get new customers as viable options for students increasingly are just around the corner.

Underneath it all is the 755 Walnut dilemma: dilapidated housing stock and a demoralized, undereducated population that has multiple immediate needs while recognizing that only through the long grind of education can the tide be turned.

Does Camden Prep then buttress its academic achievements, which do not yet include a twelfth grade – a big competitive disadvantage – with multiple programs that seek to address certain needs which are at the parent level. Can it reach out from the Uncommon cocoon and create vibrant collaborations with locally-rooted people. Will it take the huge step of being involved, directly or indirectly, at the preschool level, where the district itself would be the biggest competitor.

Having more talent at the Camden Prep level, as distinct from the home office, should be a major improvement when it comes to both reaching out and the messaging of academic results. Will it be enough in an overcrowded enrollment market: doubtful. It is difficult to see the school breaking even on the public dollar (adjusted for multiple one-time sources of funds) in the foreseeable future.

Is the game worth the candle, then? Yes!

Camden Prep cannot bring Hilton to 755 Walnut, nor should all those involved in the betterment of Camden want that to happen considering the ramifications of gentrification.

Camden Prep’s mission, regardless of the challenges inherent in attracting and retaining students, is to continue delivering the highest quality education in the city. It has no other reason for being.

 

• Graduates in the year 2021: 
  
• What an interesting group, hailing (though not necessarily commuting!) from New Jersey to New York to Nepal. The diploma range is from a two-year degree to graduate school. Some of you took a straight-line route, some had a change or two along the way as you decided on your next step.
• All of you are working in some capacity already, with the majority simultaneously attempting to figure out life after graduation: will that first regular employment be “just a job” or a stepping stone toward your desired career. 
• Some of you have graduate school in mind, but not necessarily right away, knowing that such a step probably would be the most intentional education decision you have ever made.
• All have persevered through a pandemic that turned your lives, and/or those of your families and friends, upside down. 
• All have dealt with the pluses and minuses of your particular school, at times thinking it was the best choice ever and at other times wondering why you ever enrolled there.
• All have lamented the lack of clear communication from schools during the various changes dictated by the pandemic.
• Most important is that each of you has become more self-reflective, more aware of who you are as a individual, your uniqueness, and your ability to become the person you want to be. In a society and world where lack of self-knowledge can quickly get one labeled and grouped, the ability to “know thyself” is more important than ever.
  Congratulations!
  As the country gets more vaccinated, I hope to break bread with you and get completely caught up.  I realize that your graduation ceremonies themselves will be restricted attendance, if any, a bummer for sure.
  Peace,
  Bob
  
  
  
  
  

The secret to learning Reading had little to do with school — or the latest teaching techniques found on college education major syllabi — or insights delivered at workshops by expensive consultants.

Instead, what if a positive attitude, curiosity, and learning Reading stemmed from a stable family structure, the inculcation of values, books in the home, affordable time and available energy.

Maybe a series of societal changes would be more likely to produce acceptable Reading outcomes than teachers seeking to be heroes. Or is the former one of those necessary, but not sufficient situations.

Here are a few examples of societal changes with prospectively highly leveraged positive returns:

Inexpensive daycare … Higher minimum wage … Restructured marijuana laws … Availability of Pell grants for prisoners … Ability to choose the school to which a child attends.

Fast forward, at the upper end of the school age spectrum, long after Reading has supposedly become a habit, why not make this ask of rising high school graduates:

Agreement that the sequence of high school graduation, then a job, then marriage, then a child is clearly preferable socioeconomically (demonstrated to be the case by Brookings Institute research data) to any sequence which switches around these four milestones of life.

Perhaps the combination of said agreement and the aforementioned multiple societal changes would lead to more family cohesion, which would lead in turn to increased success in Reading.

Or maybe my “What If” mutterings are meaningless in a world of Googled “education’ and social media addiction. Why even care about in-depth Reading when “answers” to all of life’s questions are merely a click away.

For a period of several decades, ending in the early 2000’s, Bob Gersony was an “humanitarian contractor” to various agencies of the United States government.   This is somewhat surprising, given that today’s profile of a private contractor to the government is that of a mercenary whose allegiance is to the connection between his kill count and his paycheck, operating under the protection of Washington officials determined to bring our way of life to heathens around the world, even if we have to decimate their country to do so.

The book entitled “The Good American” chronicles the life story of Gersony. At various times, he went to Guatemala, Mozambique, Nepal, Sudan, Ethiopia. His task was to find out what was going on by talking to regular people, not those higher up who often allowed theory to disturb facts. With a pen and notebook, he interviewed hundreds of refugees, for example, and his policy conclusions were often at odds with those expressed by those in far-off comfortable offices. And his suggestions were almost invariably productive.

There are so many aspects of Bob’s approach that lend themselves to daily living for all of us:

*every person wants to feel empowered to choose his/her own path

*people want to be productive, to live meaningful lives

*most individuals would like to be part of a community, however defined

*having questions for each new person you meet is part of lifelong learning

*listening to answers and following up unlocks more information than using a script

*assumptions without research are perilous

In my circuitous mind, thinking about Gersony and what he did brought me back to wondering about my own country, not a distant situation.

As the United States moves inexorably to one of multiple minorities, it will be incumbent on those in growth mode — Hispanics, Asians, African-Americans, and mixtures of every conceivable combination – to be more charitable to their prior oppressors than the latter have been to them. The alternative is a series of bloodbaths.

White America, which is not growing its population and shows no inclination to do so by suddenly changing its birth rate, will obviously attempt to cling to that power which it regarded as a birth right. At a minimum, many feeling that loss of place will “act out,” as the therapist would say. The prior administration legitimatized violent action, but it was already happening, with one indication being the ultimate acting out, suicide, the rate of which has been rising.

The January insurrection in the nation’s capital was completely shocking for its location, but to me it was not surprising when analyzed through the lens of acting out. For every person who openly totes a gun or throws a rock in frustration, there are thousands, especially in small town and rural America, who are wistful about “the way things used to be,” when a decent job was attainable with only a high school education, when the local factory meant the possibility of lifetime employment, when a white collar position in a multi-layered corporation never would be exposed to downsizing.

Theirs are lives in geographies carved up by farmlands and rivers and hills and railroad tracks, none of which have their historical relevance, not in a world which transacts life through laptops, clicks delivered by people whose fingernails have never been dirtied.

The Elks and the Moose and the VFW and the American Legion are all there, along with monuments to the fallen military personnel who disproportionately come from small town America. Flags are more evident, some tattered but not to be trifled with by those who want perfection in their patriotic displays.

Their memories become their lives; they are attached to them with a defensive strength that defies dispassionate analysis. Scapegoats are eagerly sought.

The more passive of those who are embittered simply have let their votes tell of their frustration. The more aggressive have taken to the streets, to internet postings in an attempt to find compatriots in their delusion that the demographic tide – which they have consistently and erroneously seized upon as the cause of their angst — can be stemmed.

In a country where on average everybody owns a gun, it should not be surprising that so-called sudden and inexplicable violence is paradoxically more the norm than the exception. Murder rates, incarceration levels, childhood gun-related fatalities, domestic violence incidence all are suggestive of a society struggling mightily to cope with its multiple challenges.

There is little doubt that a humanitarian contractor will be needed right here, talking with ordinary people and, through those with power, trying to convert that research into policies that can find a receptive audience. Washington, in contrast, is fixated on its own rules of political engagement, manipulating each other for gains which continue when they become lobbyists after leaving office (just as the corporate executive who has hurt his company walks away with millions of dollars).

And all the while, those segments of the population who are relatively new to being outside the gates of power wonder “what about us,” the same question that those seeking power have been rightfully asking for a very long time. The same question which has now become a series of demands; the due bill of history is now to be paid.

Traveling to the heart of darkness, the inner soul of the United States, and creating a game plan for the complex reality of a shift in power and an evolving revision of the prior American narrative — would be the most difficult assignment every given to a Bob Gersony.