The SoapBoxers

There is a lot of praise and condemnation of the Occupy Wall Street group and other groups like them springing up around the country. Even in my small middle America town there is a group, although they go home at night and to their jobs on week days. There is a lot to like and dislike about them. They are not the demons or saints that the various bloggers, reporters and talk show host make them out to be. They are typically law-abiding people with a complaint that they do not think is being addressed by our governmental leaders.

First, the name of 99%ers. The right wing complains because they have defined that label as a claim to represent the views of 99% of the population. This claim and accusation are equally absurd. The people have identified themselves as part of the 99% of people below the highest wealth group of American society. This is an accurate description.

Second is the message. They are mad about the bailouts of companies that have outrageous bonus and pay structures for their executives. They are also complaining about a lot of other perceived injustices that can hardly be considered a cohesive or comprehensible message. I agree with the complaint about the bail outs. A lot of our tax money was spent to save failed businesses. If you are rewarded for taking risks with large salaries and bonuses, then why are you rewarded when there is no risk? A risk is an action that could result in loss. In these cases, the “risk” was to spend someone else’s money, but get paid whether you succeeded or failed.

I find it interesting that the targets are just some of the executives, not all, and that the decision makers, our elected officials, are not the targets. These protests are very similar to the Tea Party protests last year, only the identified enemy is different.

I have seen signs complaining about large loans. Why did you take out the loans in the first place? I have seen signs complaining about large debts from college. Why is that the fault of the banks? I agree that there is a problem, but the problem seems to be in our own ability to identify the root cause. If you are deeply in debt, it is you fault. You never have to take out a loan. If you college education cost a lot and you can’t get a job, blame the university, not the bank.

I was lucky, I got an education back when it was reasonably priced. I lived in my parents’ home, went to the state college, and got a degree that had the potential of resulting in a job opportunity. I have kids in college right now. Both my wife and I are working to help keep the final debt to a minimum, but it is not easy. The cost of a college education has gone up many more times than the potential income boost of having that education. Since we do not live near the state school that has the career degrees that my kids are perusing, they live in a dorm. They do not have cars, TVs, IPods, IPhones, IPads or spending money. They work every summer and some during the school year. They have cell phones, the cheapest on a family plan. They do not have texting or unlimited anything.

We own a home. We did not spend anywhere near the amount of money that the bank suggested, instead we looked at what we could afford. We own a car, but we did not start off with a new one and we drive our cars until they are too expensive to repair, not until they are out of style.

So I do agree with the 99%ers. We should not be bailing out the banks, car companies, investment firms, or governmentally sponsored mortgage organizations. I disagree with them in other ways, and I cannot tell how many I actually disagree with because of the confusion of demands. I do not believe that we should forgive any loans. I was distressed that I had to explain to my youngest child why that was a bad idea. I believe that I will repeat it here, since many of the protesters do not understand how basic banking works. If we forgive the loans, we are stealing from every depositor to that bank. That’s right, stealing. Every dollar that is loaned out comes from the pool of money that depositors have put in the bank. Apparently, the protestors think that the banks just have the money from some magical source. So if we forgive the loans, grandma suddenly has no savings.

I do agree that college costs too much. I do not agree that this is the fault of the banks. The only people you can blame are the colleges themselves. The banks do not set tuition rates. I am especially aggravated with state schools, which take tax dollars and still raise the rate at more that inflation. I am not in the business of education, but there seem to be a lot of courses and degrees that do not lead to employment. Sure you may feel good about yourself for delving into some niche group study, but if it forces up tuition that much, is it worth it?

To keep my message at least somewhat coherent, I will not even address some of the other complaints.

I don’t know about you, but fall is my favorite season. Sure there is a lot of work to do around the house, getting ready for winter and cleaning up mostly. Raking leaves out in bright sun shine with a good breeze is invigorating. Cutting back the perennials, pulling up the annuals and just looking up at the majesty of the trees establishes the boundary between summer and winter. The squirrels and rabbits dodge about gathering what they can for the days to come, and the kids rejoice in spreading the leaves that you have so carefully piled. This is not a one day effort. Every couple of days there is a new vista and more work. First the Ashes drop their bright yellow leaves, then the aspens and maples drop orange, yellows and reds, and finally the mighty oaks add their dazzling array of color to the mix.

The smells and sounds of the season are so rich. The maple leaves have the strong aroma of whisky barrels, the pines add their heady tar, and the final harvest of vegetables are a medley of smells. There is always at least one person in the neighborhood with an open pit fire going to add the feel of a campout. Everyone is out, talking about the year, talking about sports, worrying about the coming weather. When you have had enough (you are never truly done), you can head inside for more evidence of change.

There are football games, baseball games and cooking. Every house I enter this time of year is filled with the smells of wondrous foods. Some are canning for the winter, others are making pies, cookies, tailgate snacks, or other goodies. It is a good thing there is so much work to do, or we would all pack on extra pounds. We relish these days because we know that they are few. Soon, the World Series will be over, Halloween will be upon us, cold and rainy weather will dampen our spirits. We will still have football, good food and camaraderie to keep us going, at least through January. But for now, this is good season.

I love this time of year. The leaves are changing and the real college football games are finally on. I had the opportunity to see my Texas Longhorns open Big XII play against Iowa State. My kids and my money go to Iowa State, but my heart is still in Texas, at least for college sports. My daughter and I sat on the 10 year line row 4 on the Texas side of the field. We both wore burnt orange. I have to say that the Iowa State fans were (for the most part) very nice and polite. Sure there were a couple of annoying drunks complaining about every play, but all in all, nice.

The game was good, from my point of view. Texas was up 34-0 at half time and the game was never really in doubt (don’t forget you owe me a lunch, Kosmo). It was kind of sad when the crowd got excited about a 5 yard penalty against Texas. Nothing went right for Iowa State until late in the fourth quarter. They had a lot of penalties and several hurt players. One young man left on the golf cart after a helmet hit. Both teams and the entire crowd prayed for him as he left.

This is college football at its best. Enjoying the game, respecting both teams, and games that matter. What I mean by this is a perspective on College football. Only a few teams are “playing for the national championship” from the start of the season. The first few games are warm ups, sometimes matching two high level teams, but usually matching small against large. The real contest for most teams is to try to win their conference. With that under your belt you can consider the national championship, that is once you get your bowl game sorted out. Some teams look forward to just one specific game against a specific rival (for Texas, that is beating Oklahoma), and that can sometimes be more important than even having a winning season.

As long as I have followed College ball, opponents have worn tee-shirts emblazoned with “Beat Texas”. I have also seen “Beat OU”, “Beat State” (pretty generic actually) and “Beat N”. I guess it gets expensive to write out Oklahoma or Nebraska. This year, the Iowa State fan had shirts with “Beat Texas Again”. I liked that. It didn’t happen, but I still liked the sentiment. Since they beat Texas last year, (and really started the Texas collapse by showing the world where Texas was weak) those shirts can be worn every year from now on.

There were several great games (sorry about Nebraska Johnny) this week. There were still some tune up games (notably Oklahoma beating up on Ball State), but mostly we saw conference battles and relatively evenly matched schools. It just gets better next week. With the realignment of conferences, there will be some games that will not occur (OU or Texas vs Nebraska for the big XII championship is one), but that just provides more opportunities for really good bowl games in December and January.

I still do not understand how the rankings work. I do not see how not playing can cause you to drop in the polls or how there can be 2 loss teams still in the top 25. But that is OK. I am not a sports writer and I do not have a vote. That lets me complain about every team’s position in every poll.

There have been many columns and many opinions published about the future of the Big XII conference. The focus primarily has been on the football angle of the configuration. As a Texas graduate and fan, I want to see the conference survive, with Texas and Oklahoma still part of the group. I feel that the conference was really hurt by the departure of Nebraska, but not so much by the departure of Colorado or the future departure of Texas A&M. True there is a good rivalry between Texas and Texas A&M, but that is really the only thing that was brought to the table with Texas A&M. If we break it down by sport we can see that this is a strong conference. You probably notice that there is only discussion of splintering during football season.

Football has a number of perennial bowl team – Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska (☹), and a number of contenders most of the time – Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Texas Tech, Missouri. Even this year, Baylor and Texas A&M are ranked.

Men’s Basketball has perennial NCAA teams – Texas, Kansas, Missouri, and a number of contenders most years – Oklahoma, Kansas State, Texas A&M.

Women’s Basketball has perennial NCAA teams – Baylor and Iowa State recently, Texas in the past, and contenders – Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State.

Baseball we have Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, and Oklahoma almost every year and Texas A&M Oklahoma State showing well recently.

Softball there is Missouri, Texas, Baylor each year.

Wrestling we have Iowa State and Missouri (and Nebraska) showing well every year.

There is swimming, track and field, and rowing. There are very few sports that the big XII is not represented at the tournament levels. Beyond that, every team is successful in at least one sport.

It seems that most writers are concentrating on the demise of the conference and the assumption that Oklahoma and Texas will leave for a “better” deal. What is so unbelievable about the Big XII finding good teams (Big East or unhappy other teams) to make a super conference? Bringing in a West Virginia or UConn or even an Arkansas would strengthen an already strong conference.

In the final analysis, none of the authors who have expressed their opinions actually know what is happening behind the scenes at the conference. I, as a fan, can only hope that the financial and other issues can be worked out to establish the Big XII as a dominant permanent conference in all of the NCAA sports.

Yet again this last week, congress considered a funding bill. This one was to provide continuing budget to the office of emergency management. There was a great deal of talk, for anyone still interested in listening, about how there could be no opposition to this bill as it was to help the poor people suffering from the flooding in the north east. The bill failed, mostly because it was not just funding for the stated problem, but also because the flooding was minor compared to other disasters that have not been addressed by the federal government, notably the fires in Texas.

The problem is not that this bill failed. It is not even that this bill was proposed. The problem is that congress has failed to address a fundamental duty of that body. They have not passed a budget. This is now coming up on two years and two separate congresses that a budget has not been established.

Why is a budget so important? The budget establishes what the government will spend. Any new projects have to find funding. It allows the various contractors who support government programs plan staffing and activities. The largest of these that the press reports on is the military, but that is now less than a third of the budget. There are a large contingent of non-government workers supporting social and infrastructure programs as well. Without a budget, governmental departments are supposed to continue to spend at the level established the previous year, but some things, such as the medical program known as Obama Care, have never been baselined and are therefore not under any fiscal control.

What about the continuing resolution that was passed last month? Actually, that was a basic duck and roll. It was more about raising the debt limit than providing budgetary guidance to the departments. It was as surrender to the cry of imminent disaster. In fact, if the continuing resolution had not been passed and the debt limit had not been approved, the government would have continued pretty much without effect on 99% of people. There would have been mandatory reduction in all departments, social security would have continued without interruption (it is a separate tax) but the big effect would have been zeroing out spending on all non-baselined activities. Obama Care and any remaining funds I the bailouts would have been deleted. Basically, everything that the last two congresses have passed but not budgeted, would have been halted.

I am not going to discuss whether these projects should be funded, that is the debate that the congress has to have. What I am condemning is the apparent abdication of responsibility of the congress to pass a budget and hold the government to some sort of spending control.

Fall (or Autumn) begins this week. Officially it starts at 9:04 UTC (3:04 AM Eastern time in the U.S.) on Friday Morning. That is the moment of the Autumnal Equinox or the point at which day and night are exactly equal. During the barbaric (pre-Christian) period of Europe and in some areas of Africa today, the Equinox (both vernal and autumnal) and the Solstice (Summer and Winter) are significant holidays. Although the Christian church did supplant the vernal equinox with Easter and the Winter Solstice with Christmas, the autumnal equinox has been left, not so much superseded, but ignored. Oh sure, some astronomy buffs may make a big deal about it, but most people do not even know that it is the true separation of summer and fall.

Science and technicalities aside, what does the transition from summer to fall actually mean? In most of the United States, school started almost a month ago. College football is already in its third week and professional football is in its second. There is still a month of baseball left. Politicians no longer wait for fall to start campaigning, you could actually say that this cycle began the day of the last presidential election. The new car models use to be released at the end of October, now they start in the spring. Halloween candy and decorations at one time went on sale at the start of fall, now they are on the shelves right after the school supplies are pulled. It seems that modern commercialism had done a better job of minimizing the importance of an old pagan holiday than the church.

Regardless of what importance Man puts on the seasonal transition, nature will continue as it always has. Nights will get longer, days will get cooler, the crops will mature. All this will happen whether there is a celebration or no, whether there is a sale or no, and whether you even notice the weatherman announce the fact of the equinox or not. Canadian geese are starting to head south. Some animals and insects will go into hibernation. All of these natural events will occur even without our acknowledgement.

I hope you do recognize this event. I am not asking anyone to participate in a pagan rite, just an observation of the beautifully cyclic dance of our world. Day to day, month to month, season to season and year to year, we get to experience miracles and spectacular displays. Take at least one opportunity to experience our world.

The President of the United States was involved in two major events over the last week.  Most recently, he was the guest of honor at the 9/11 remembrance in New York City.  The president along with all of the other dignitaries and special guests did a phenomenal job of participation without ostentation, but with dignity and reverence.  The right wing fears of exclusion of first responders and prayer were just simply wrong.  The memories of those who lost their lives on that September morning 10 years ago, and those who have lost their lives in the defense of our nation since then, were honored.  The poems, letters and scriptures read, the musical performances, the reading of the names, and the personal testimonies, all added to the somber yet hopeful atmosphere of the entire day.

The second event, was a speech before a joint session of congress, advertised as the solution for the joblessness being experienced in the United States.  This event was not nearly as mature, dignified, or effective as the 9/11 anniversary.  This speech, which was supposed to be a new message, was in fact a restatement of some fifty previous speeches that he president has given.  The immaturity of the event was exposed in the political squabbling that went on before the actual speech accrued.  First, the president asked for the joint session on the same night that a previously scheduled debate of the Republican presidential candidates.  The speaker of the house, a republican, refused.  His refusal was not well taken by the White House, both sides acting like children.  The President eventually asked for the joint session on the following night.

The content of this speech in no way required a joint session of congress.  The speech promised a proposed piece of legislation that he insisted must be passed quickly.  He had already promised to have legislation ready when they returned from their summer vacations.  There was no legislation, that is the prevue of the congress anyway, there was just another promise to get it to them.  Now there were some ideas presented that are good, but not new.  Training for the long term unemployed is a great idea, a democratic congress with Ronald Reagan had a program for the same purpose back in the 1980’s.  Preferential employment of veterans is another good idea, but it has been in place for federal employment, post office and contractors to the government since World War II.

The most frightening part of the speech was not the repetitiveness of the ideas for jobs, but the repetitiveness of the exorbitant cost and methods of payment. Yet again the suggestion is hundreds of billions of dollars spent.  Once again there is a call for taxing the “more fortunate” members of society, as if earning is a gift that is not fair.  And again, we here of a rich man who does not think it is fair that he pays less in income tax than his secretary (Mr. Buffet, you do not have to claim all of your deductions if you think you should pay more).  Although there are plenty of things wrong with the tax code (the complexity alone is mind boggling), increasing taxes is not the solution.

The only way to get the economy going again is to have actual work for people to do.  Not shifting of payment of projects from states to the federal government, not addressing an unreported surplus of unemployed teachers, and definitely not another hand out to some bankrupt entity be it an car company, a bank or a union.  This country needs to spend within its budget and reduce the burden of taxes and regulation on everyone.  It worked for Kennedy and Reagan.  When we spend beyond our means and broaden the scope of government, the economy goes into the tank, as happened under Johnson and prolonged by the “price freezes” of Nixon and Carter and is now happening from the spending frenzy of Bush and Obama.  In each case, we identify the president, but the blame is equally if not more the responsibility of the congress at the time.

The last issue with the speech was the return to blaming the previous president for the problems being faced today.  There is always a lingering effect of the previous administration, but up until now, the president has remained above the blame game.  It is one thing if a partisan group blames Clinton for 9/11, it would have been quite another if the Bush had gotten on front of congress and blamed him.  Yet again, President Obama is blaming Bush.  Since he took office, the deficit has gotten bigger, unemployment has gotten worse, and up until eight months ago, he had gotten everything he wanted.  Eventually, the president and especially congress will have to start acting like adults.  We cannot expect the partisans or the press to mature, but we should expect it from our elected officials.  It will not be possible to create jobs until at least one thing happens – Congress must do its job and actually pass a budget.  Nothing that the president suggests or sends to congress to consider will have any meaning until a budget is in place.

Labor Day is a day of celebration.  The celebration is sometimes not understood by the majority of people benefitting from the day off.  Labor Day is the recognition of organized labor in the United States.  That’s right conservatives, a national holiday for Unions.  So the question arises, why a holiday for labor, don’t they get off for all of the other holidays?

When the first “informal” Labor day was celebrated in the late 1800’s, there were no official holidays, there were not even official weekends.  The majority of corporate workers (admittedly not the majority of people as most people worked their own farms or small businesses) worked at the pleasure of the company.  If you were a coal worker, you lived in company housing, shopped at the company store and usually owed the company more at the end of the month than you paycheck was worth.  Then if you got hurt or killed, your family was thrown out to make room for a new worker.  There were equally deplorable conditions in the garment industry, transportation and others.

Labor unions started in Europe in the 1600’s to protect the integrity of specific trades.  You could not sell your services as a carpenter unless you were a recognized member of the carpenter’s union.  This ensured quality for the whole industry and ensured higher compensation for the members of the union.  In the United Sates and England, labor unions took on the abuses of industry during the industrial revolution and into the 20th century.  These abuses were real and dangerous, there was no Department of Labor or OSHA.  The government even sent out thugs to break up protests, including beatings and killings.  Most people today cannot claim that the union movement was not needed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

For those of you who are not union members (called free loaders), you have a lot to celebrate as well.  Two day weekends, the 40 hour week, federal holiday, sick leave, vacation, and even disablity insurance are all the result of the labor movement.  There were and are companies that provided these benefits without the need for union or governmental pressure (to get and keep the best employees), but for the largest industries, there is no evidence that they would ever have changed the policies that resulted in the labor disputes of 100 years ago.

Now comes the question as to the necessity of unions today.  There is a strong effort today by the federal government to revitalize unions.  Union membership has been dropping over the last 30 years.  So of this is because the unions won.  The major grievances have been addressed.  New workers do not have the history to understand what was achieved and what can be lost.  But there is another driver.  After World War II, union leaders became separated for the union membership.  A myth arose that in order to negotiate with corporate leaders, union leaders had to be of equal compensation with staff and support.  Early union leaders were the guys willing to walk up to a line of armed thugs and tell them off, true works and true heroes.  Today’s leadership is just another layer of management between the worker and the corporate leaders.  This extra layer spend the money of the rank and file on things the ordinary worker does not understand.  So today, there are law suites against unions for using funds to lobby for legislation or bonus for leadership.

To answer the question posed above, unions are definitely still necessary.  We simply cannot depend on the government protecting our rights and ensuring proper treatment.  The government has been on the wrong side of the argument too many times (labor and civil rights are just tow examples) where force has been used to suppress legitimate complaints.  Are unions effective in their present form?  That question is up for debate.  When the federal government has to step in to assure membership, something is fundamentally wrong.  When the most significant issue being pushed by organized labor is “card check” is to remove the rights of union members (elimination of the secret ballot in union activities), things just do not seem right.

Enjoy this last hurray of summer.  Celebrate labor as one of the three pillars of what makes America great; Military strength, Agricultural independence, and Labor Union.  We owe our lives, our comfort and our livelihood to every other American we share this great nation with.

Across most of America, students have headed back to school. This is significant in many ways. For the drivers out there, it means that there are school buses to watch out for and avoid, not to mention the kids getting on and off. On the positive side for drivers, there will be fewer children on the streets during school hours. There was also an up tick in retail sales as school supplies and new clothes were on the list over the last few weeks. Although it is only a temporary boost, any economic good news is important these days. Finally, and most import to some, college and professional football are on television again.

I for one am relieved that the diversion of football is back. Although I seldom go to games, I do watch on television. Baseball on the other hand, I will go to see live, but seldom watch on television. In baseball, the stadium activities are part of the overall entertainment. For football, the only entertainment you can watch that is not the actual game, is the half time show, but that is the time for bathroom breaks and food call.

This is the time of year where baseball is wrapping up with the excitement of the pennant, football is starting, the state fairs are underway, and politicians are kissing babies. Living in Iowa, I am in the center of all of those activities. We are bout four hours from four professional baseball team, with lots of minor league teams even closer. The same distance from five professional football teams with lots of college division I and II near by. We are currently the center of political activity with the straw poll and the jobs tour by the President.

In some ways this is a comfortable routine that we have every year (except for the politicians of course). We get to the school year and think back to our own school days. We start to reminisce about our friends and the good times we had. So, it is time to cheer on our school, or our kids’ schools, go to recitals and rallies. All of this will create new memories, mostly for the young people, but we oldsters will gain some as well.

There is a place dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds for gardeners all over the world. Heirloom seeds are handed down from generation to generation on small farms for unique types of flowers, vegetables and berries. They are different from the mass produced seeds that you can pick up at any garden center or super store like Walmart, Kmart, Home Depot, or Lowes. Heirloom seeds are not hybrids, the seeds of the plant can be harvested to be used again next year.

There is nothing wrong with hybrid seeds. Hybrids have made food available in a greater abundance than the world has ever seen. Heirloom seeds allow the gardener to be freed from the need to return each year to the box store. In addition, the maintenance of these seeds and plant provide the basis for all hybrid development. If there were to be a disastrous year for the seed industry, having this repository of the basic plants will be invaluable in restarting and creating food and flowers.

The place is called the Seed Savers Exchange. They have a farm located outside of Decorah, Iowa. As the name suggests, they continuously look for sources of heirloom seeds, and exchange with those gardeners to broaden the inventory that they keep in protected storage to preserve garden biodiversity. They exist through several avenues of funding, including memberships, donations and direct sale of the seeds. There are reportedly only two organizations currently perusing the protection of our crop heritage, the Seed Savers exchange and a similar organization in Norway.

The farm is open to visitors and has several active gardens to tour and walking trails, along with a store where seeds, books and experiences can be exchanged. Walking those gardens is especially pleasant during the late summer, when the season starts to cool in far northern Iowa. There are numerous herbs, flowers and vegetables. Although they host activities all year, the beginning of September brings the Tomato Testing event. The gardens add a twist as the plants are not grown to harvest the fruit, but to harvest the seed. The onions are huge, but the seeds are what are prized. The squash, zucchini, cucumbers, bean and peas are over ripe, but perfect.

The whole idea is to preserve. Pursuant to this mission, the people at the exchange teach. They have pamphlets and books to teach anyone how to grow their own garden anywhere. The customers exchange stories; what works, what does not, what has been tried, and what would be interesting to try. This effort has apparently gotten some well deserved attention. The President of the United States, Mr. Barak Obama, is planning a visit to the farm. The people of Decorah are excited about his visit, as are the people who work and the farm. It is worth the effort to visit, if not in person, like the President, then on line, where much of what is available at the farm can be viewed and purchased.