What's next for America? Part three

What's next for America Part two

What's next for America? Part 1

America Is Already Great! However, We Still Have Much Work to Do

                                     By Michael Smook

(A.) Preface:

This essay was written before the Republican and Democrat National Conventions. It will be posted shortly as an Internet – Blog several months prior to the November (’16) national elections. It is my hope that most of what I have written will remain relevant once a new President and Congress are ready to go to work early next year.

The political process we are going through now in the United State can be contentious and painful at times. However, life-in general and in-particular the political process involving a democratically-government are not for the faint-hearted. However, at its best, politics is the art of the possible. That’s why I am hopeful for the future.

(B.) Introduction:

There is a politician who has been telling the American people for some time that he will “Make America Great Again!” and that you should vote for him for President of the United States in the upcoming election in order to fix what he considers to be what’s wrong with our country. With the recent terrorist attacks in the United States, Europe and Asia and the Brexit vote in favor of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union (EU) trading block, this politician thrives on adverse circumstances and is trying to instill fear in American voters who might be persuaded to vote for a modern BT Barnum who seems to arrive at easy answers and has no tolerance of any kind of contrary opinions.

On a good day, he is angry, antagonistic, caustic, abrasive and vindictive. It seems that the term, emotional intelligence, left him some time ago. He also wants to build a wall along the border of one our largest trading partners, threaten United States companies who relocate to this neighboring country and impose tariffs on imports our largest trading partners. Without much thought, he’s stated a preference once about America paying off our national debt at fifty cents on the dollar. Many economists believe that such unorthodox actions could cause collateral damage causing a world-wide recession. Also, the outcome of this misadventure could undo our nation’s two hundred forty years of credit-worthiness. Let’s all take a collective deep breath and think things through together.

In this essay, I will outline next steps we can take together in order to improve our country by expanding and strengthening the middle class through rebuilding infrastructure and expanding trade with other nations so we can all grow and prosper together. In addition, I want to take this opportunity to write about the need in the United States for building bridges across the ideological divide. America needs to be engaged in a world in an ongoing, methodical and sustainable way enabled by policies in a world where commerce from nation-states continues to be rapidly integrated.

Seeking easy answers and making false choices is a serious mistake. Also, more talk about demonizing more than one and a half billion people of a particular monotheistic religious faith who are neither Christians nor Jews is another and more specific false choice. At the end of this essay and the timeframe we are working through, I am hopeful that we will start to make the right decisions based upon enlighten self-interest and not out-of-fear. As the late-Abraham Lincoln might say at this time, we need to channel, “The better angels of our nature.”

(C.) America Is Relatively Prosperous, But Many Do Not Feel It: Where Do We Go from Here?

America is arguably the greatest country in the world. I say arguably because I haven’t lived elsewhere. Even if we are the second greatest nation, we have much to be thankful for. America is a unified country of approximately three hundred twenty-three million people. We represent 5% of the earth’s population and 25% of its economic output. America’s farming production is the bread-basket to the world even though its farmers are a small percentage of the work force. Our cutting-edge information technology (IT) products, pharmaceutical industry and entertainment companies possess a brand which is the envy among all nations including our allies and competitors.

The remainder of the world which encompasses 95% of our planet’s population and looks to America’s involvement in so many ways including diplomatically, politically, economically, culturally as well as for our intelligence and military prowess. Also, America is a land of opportunity and of possibilities to many non-Americans. Even our adversaries look to engage America to ensure peace and prosperity. Our nation’s White House, Capitol Hill Congressional Building as well as The Statue of Liberty along with our Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore and bucolic national parks represent buildings, statues and natural beauty which are symbolic of these ideals.

Many people from developing countries want to come to America work, live and create a new life on their own or with their families where the freedom of religion, speech, political affiliation and freedom of speech are guaranteed by our constitution. I believe that our country is an imperfect and ongoing experiment as we all strive for a better, kinder and gentler world where we work to expand and strengthen the middle class for those citizens who have been left behind and are struggling.

It makes logical sense that if more citizens benefit from a system with greater equity, opportunity and justice (market and social), there will be greater social harmony and a measure of happiness. In order to move in this direction, I believe that policies should adhere to a utilitarian principle to benefit the greatest good for the greatest number as the correct default to lean towards in public policy.

As stated in a previous blog articles, I believe that the market system which represents 75% of our economy even at its most robust does not help many of those that are left behind. In a presidential election year, we need to take stock of the good that has taken place since the founding of the United States as well as especially what’s been accomplished in the past 10-20 years.

I often think of the words of George Santayana who once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This sentence represents a challenge and an opportunity. The tricky part is that there can be an ongoing argument as to how to interpret history so that our country can move ahead. Now, we are in a time of a seven-year economic recovery. Many Americans feel left out which is why so many people voted for Trump and Sanders in the Republican and Democrat Presidential Primaries. The major question voters are asking is, “Where do we go from here?”

 

My thinking about why many primary voters are unhappy wanders in more than one direction. First, the Great Recession of 2008-09 which President Obama inherited could have been far worse. In 2016, the President and Democrats do not get much credit even from supporters for saving our nation from financial ruin. I presume that in the future, historians will give him high marks for how he handled this situation. But at this time, many of the voters today seem to feel uncomfortable about the economy and sense social disharmony.

With the upcoming election, I’m also thinking that President’s legacy and the 2016 election is something to build on but not a referendum for the status quo. The American people are calling for change and the candidates running for president are listening. Possible answers to the question of which direction should change take place and how do we go about this will be covered in this essay.

(D.) The Most Consequential Election in Our Nation’s History in 1864 Affects Us Even Today

In order to discuss the present and look to the future, it’s very helpful to write about our most consequential election in American history which was one hundred and fifty-two years ago in 1864. If not for the political leadership of a war-time President, Abraham Lincoln, and the effective efforts of his generals, Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, as strategists and battlefield commanders and the brave fighting and sacrifices of our federal soldiers and sailors, George McClellan, a failed general and the Democrat candidate for President, would have won the election, sued for peace with the south and the United States would have been divided into two or more countries. So arguably our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln, could have easily been a failed or minor presidency. And, how the world may have been changed many years ahead by World Wars (I and II) and the Cold War is open to debate by historians, pundits and fiction writers?

In those days, there was no polling. Prior the unions’ successful efforts in August and September of 1984, many newspapers throughout the union were reporting that the war was a failure, our generals were butchers, our union soldiers and sailors were ineffective and our president was clueless and feckless. It was at this point, our President was able turn history around in the right direction by appointing generals who knew how to effectively wage a new kind of war on a large scale with conventional armies and navies and with the required logistics to supply our brave fighters with the latest state-of-the-art weapons and materials necessary to be decisively victorious.

These efforts were greatly assisted by the north’s great industrial might and by effective efforts by Lincoln’s Secretaries of War, Edwin Stanton, and the Navy, Gideon Welles, who were able to supply our soldiers and sailors with the means to be successful. And in addition, let’s not forget the men and women who stayed behind to work in the factories and the farms in order to produce the required goods and to grow the crops in order to feed our fighters, raise and educate their children and the women who worked on the battle fields as tireless nurses.

In this war, the margin between victory and defeat was narrow. It was not preordained that the north was going to automatically win this war and unify our nation. This war reflects unfinished business not reconciled during the American Revolution where states with and without slaves were both permitted to be part of our new nation. The politics of the first eighty-five years of American history were in summary an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile these differences.

Many Americans have unfortunately at times taken the past efforts to unify our nation for granted because this history has been largely forgotten. The relevancy of the Civil War as a major turning point in American history is still important even today. If we now hope to go on to discuss the present economic, social and political situation in the United States today, we need to understand how the past sped American history on a certain trajectory.

All is not lost. There still are opportunities to change our country for the better. That’s why I hope that we can wisely chart a course to ensure America’s growth and prosperity. I wouldn’t be writing this essay if I did not believe that step-by-step progressive change was possible.

(E.) After Effects of the War Between the States:

After the Civil War, the southern states were permitted to rejoin the United States. Thus, the country was now unified. The slaves were given freedom from their political and legal status and male slaves were given the right to vote. However, after twelve years of a period known as Reconstruction, things changed significantly for the worse.  During this time, a masked vigilante group known as the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) primarily composed of former Confederate officers and enlisted men launched a lawless reign of terror against Blacks in the south and border states and were permitted to get away with criminal acts of murder and destruction of property by local authorities. The KKK was able to be so bold, unlawful, immoral and audacious because the federal government pulled its troops out of the south now that supposed normalization took place. No legal authority was deputized by authorities at different levels of government to effectively stop the KKK after Reconstruction ended.

From the end of Reconstruction and over the next ninety years, southern states implemented a policy of separate but equal which is often referred to as The Jim Crow Laws. Thus, many Black Americans were treated as second class citizens and relegated to work as tenant farmers on land in the rural south that were once plantations. They were no longer physically enslaved, but instead they remain economic slaves. The United States Supreme Court in one of its worst decisions endorsed these policies through its Plessy Vs Ferguson decision.  Southern state and local governments found ways to greatly minimize the Black vote at the ballot box through physical intimidation, literacy tests and poll taxes. With power devolving from the federal government to the states, a case can be made which articulates that although the north won the war and preserved our nation’s union, the south won the peace at least for the next ninety years.

In the 1960s, we saw some change for the better with the federal government passing laws known as the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965.  These new laws were reinforced by the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the 14^th Amendment which were passed into law following the Civil War but never effectively implemented until a century later.  The assassination of President John F. Kennedy (JFK) served as a catalyst along with the civil rights movement lead by Martin Luther King, Jr., which was assisted by the agenda of the new President, Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ). Johnson was originally a Senator from Texas before he moved onto Washington, DC, as Vice President and later President. Both of these men, Johnson and King, were the principal agents of change which made this legislation possible.

In the 1960s, we saw a new breed of more open minded and progressive southern governors elected into office such as Jimmy Carter in the 1960s and 70s and Bill Clinton in the 1980s and 90s. During this timeframe, separate but equal was gradually eliminated and Blacks were able to vote in greater numbers. In the new twenty first century, the social disharmony erupted with increasing frequency reflected in incidents between police (both Black and White) and Black citizens throughout our nation in Minnesota, Maryland, Texas and Missouri. These incidents represent a sense to me that there is unfinished business going back to the time of the civil war and hundreds of years before then.

In my way of thinking, part of this problem requires a balancing in the change in policies requiring an improvement in the economic lives of Black citizens as well as all American citizens. I believe that I can say with an honest conviction that both Black-Lives-Matter and All-Lives-Matter. I think that one of the issues that will continue to be discussed now that we have presumptive nominees of both the Democrat and Republic Party is a plan to legislate a jobs bill and greater federal funding of trade schools and public colleges. It is politically a good idea to unify all people behind an employment opportunities program. This initiative cannot be viewed as a bill favoring any one particular group. It must be seen as “An American Rebuilding Project” which revitalizes our country, education citizenry and puts people back to work.

I do not presume that an economic approach will resolve all of the aftereffects of hundreds of years of slavery, the civil war and all the rest. However, I believe, it’s an effective start.  Borrowing from an old Chinese proverb, I recall the following. If we are embarked on a journey of a thousand miles, we need to start with the first step.

(F.) Some Voters Are Angry and What Two Politicians Are Advocating About in Their “Stump” Speeches:

The numbers which reflect the past seven years of recovery look good in terms of a reduction of the nation’s unemployment rate, a declining annual federal budget deficit, the strength of the United States dollar, a cost reduction of gasoline per gallon at the pump and a successful (bull) stock market on Wall Street all reflects good news.  Some of the policies offered by the Presidential candidates are false choices which may seem popular and are directed towards anxious and eager voters who are open to listening about a quick fix.

The Republican presumptive nominee, Donald J. Trump, a self-proclaimed billionaire paradoxically remains popular with white, non-Hispanic, non-college educated voters who want to build a wall along the US-Mexican border and ask the Mexicans to pay for it. Secondly, he wants to deport twelve million undocumented immigrants who remain in legal limbo because the federal government has been hindered by inaction of the Congress and the judgement of the United States Supreme Court in its recent decision. Thirdly, Trump seems to feel that he can enforce tariffs on Chinese made goods shipped to the United States for trade without any adverse repercussions between both countries. In addition, Trump believes that a large tax cut is a good idea to stimulate the economy even though many economists believe that Trump’s Plan will explode the annual budget deficit by an additional ten trillion dollars over the next ten years.

Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont who is very popular with young voters and wants to break up the banks who he blames as having ripped-off the American people. Secondly, Sanders wants to roll back the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare by possibly improving it or replacing it with Medicare. Thirdly, Mr. Sanders wants to make public college available at no-cost to all Americans. In addition, Senator Sanders wants all Americans to have a livable minimal wage at fifteen dollars per hour. What Sanders would be able to accomplish as President if Republicans retain one or both houses of Congress is open to question?

(G.) The “Big Lie Theory” and “The Tyranny of the Majority” Can Cause Terrible Excesses in a Democracy:

Some voters are angry, fearful and want change. In a symbolic sense, it feels like the voters are being treated like hungry animals and the politicians in their speeches and proposals are throwing words and ideas which is symbolic “red or raw meat” to them. Some politicians can feel voter uncertainty, anxiousness and are exploiting it to their advantage. Americans are not being asked to pull together for a sense of shared sacrifice. One politician promises tax cuts which we might not be able to afford. Another promises benefits without specifying how to pay for them. The politicians I am thinking of are not asking for additional sacrifice from the voters who can contribute in a way similar to John F. Kennedy’s vision. JFK said in his inaugural address, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Is both a combination of patriotism and self-sacrifice now passé?

I think that Bernie Sanders can be a force for good. However, I don’t agree with everything that Sanders stands for and he can be a little over the top and shrill in his rhetoric. But, he is not a threat to the American way of life. However, I’m getting a bad feeling about Trump and shortly, I’ll explain why.

I know that this process although part of our democratic election campaign where the people decide seems to be borrowing from authoritarian government’s use of “The Big Lie Theory”. What this thinking is about is that if you use mass communication technology and tell a lie often and convincing enough with distorted information falsely attributed to be facts which are at best misinformation but at worst lies, people will eventually accept it as the truth. What some politicians are doing is playing upon people’s fears and desires for quick painless fixes.

Coupled with “The Big Lie Theory” is another idea known as “The Tyranny of the Majority”.  Alexis de Tocqueville was a politician, diplomat and scholar who visited the United States in the 1820s and 30s. In his travels, de Tocqueville observed and later wrote in, “Democracy in America”, that people in a democracy sometimes do not act in the responsible way and made life difficult for other people who may be hold a differing and minority point-of-view. Thus, an uncompromising and unforgiving majority or a plurality of citizens can make life difficult for a minority which holds contrary points-of-view.

The most glaring example of the combining of “The Big Lie Theory” and “The Tyranny of the Majority” occurred in American history during the McCarthy era. Senator Joseph McCarthy, the junior senator from Wisconsin, in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s misused his power in the United State Senate because he claimed on television, radio and through newspapers and magazines and the Senate floor that the United States’ State Department was riddled with communists in a world-wide international conspiracy to cause a revolution to overturn our democratically elected government. These American citizens where thought to be agents of a foreign government, the Soviet Union, who were frequently referred to as “fellow travelers”, “fifth columnists” or “traitors”.

During this timeframe in the other chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives, through its House on Un-Americans Activities (HUAC) Committee focused on the entertainment industry, specifically Hollywood, and interviewed Studio Heads, Producers, Directors, Screen Writers and Actors. One particular group who resisted Congresses bullying became known as the “The Hollywood Ten” . These American citizens were compelled to name names of people who may have once belonged to organizations who this committee identified as being members of subversive or communist groups who were considered to be a threat to our nation’s way-of-life. At great risk to their careers and sources of income, some people fought back stating that they were loyal Americans but refused to comply with Congresses’ misuse of its power citing their constitutional protection under the First Amendment’s “Freedom of Speech” provision.

In one poignant moment, during a Congressional Inquisition, a famed Academy Award winning screen writer, Ring Lardner, Jr., said in defiance of the committee, “I could answer your question and tell you exactly you what you want to know. But if I did, I would hate myself in the morning”. Lardner did serve nearly ten months in prison for contempt of Congress. In order to find work and circumvent the blacklist, Lardner had to relocate to Mexico, New York and Great Britain under a different name in order to find work in exchange for reduced compensation until the blacklist was lifted and he was able to return to career in Hollywood.

In retrospect, Lardner and his contemporaries did not commit a crime. They were persecuted.  These individuals were loyal American citizens as well as symbols and victim of America at its worst. In particular, Lardner suffered in different ways for a long period of time. However, he eventually rejoined Hollywood working in America without compromising his principles and was rewarded for this outstanding screen writing with a second Academy Award for his screen writing.  

After the HUAC Committee Hearings, Joseph McCarthy emerged. McCarthy had the power to subpoena witnesses to testify under oath of law. But, he was also a symbol and catalyst for negative change. The excuse for loyalty oaths for law abiding citizens and terminating people from their jobs without cause had to do with a climate of fear which spread throughout our nation relating to Soviet Union domination over Central Europe following WWII and the loss of six hundred million Chinese to the communists in a civil war half way around the world in 1949. On the home front, adding to the public’s fear was the publicity caused by two American citizens, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were tried, convicted and executed for selling America’s nuclear secrets to the Soviets.

For a period of time, McCarthy gained power because the American people were afraid and many Americans were quietly supportive of his efforts. Eventually, the American people and the politicians in Washington, DC, came to their senses. McCarthy lost power, shortly started to fade from history and unfortunately soon passed away.

(H.) False Choices Which May Sound Good to Some but May Also Cause Problems:

Bernie Sanders in his stump speech frequently criticizes the big banks as ripping off citizens with loyalty only to profits through Wall Street and working against the powerless represented as Main Street. In interviews over many months, I have noted that Sanders has not commented whether he feels that the Obama Administration’s Dodd-Frank legislation and newly created Consumer Protection Board have adequately reigned in Wall Street and the banks too big to fail since the 2008/09 recession. Nor has Senator Sanders explained in detail how he will break up the big banks and how this change in America’s financial services industry will ensure prosperity of our overall national economy and individual lives?

In addition, Sanders talks about major changes in the Affordable Care Act. Sanders wants an expansion in universal health care. He also calls for universal public college education paid for by the federal government. Sanders has not explained how these major pieces of social legislation will be paid for? Perhaps his answer is to “Tax the banks?” Sanders has not explained whether his agenda will or will not increase the federal government’s annual budget deficit nor its effect on the national economy. He has also not explained what he will do if he were to win the Democrat nomination and the United States Congress remains under a Republican majority?

Trump temporarily has rewritten the “play-book” on running for President at least as a Republican. It seems everything conventional politics says, “not-to-do”, Trump is doing. He has insulted Women, Muslims and Mexicans. With primary voters, this way of running his campaign hasn’t hindered him yet. It all seems counter-intuitive. However, if you believe the national polls, it looks like the presidential race will be close. Hilary Clinton who will Donald Trump’s opponent has polled high negative numbers by many likely voters exceeded only by Trump which seems give her a slight edge at least for now.

It seems to me that Trump has been successful thus far in conveying a message whereby he states that other trading partners weren’t playing fair and that unless terms are renegotiated favorably to the United States, he would have the United States bluff walking out and thus jeopardize long standing economic, diplomatic, political, military, environmental and intelligence understandings. By merging his stump speech about international trade supposedly affecting the United States economy in an adverse sort of way, Trump criticizes national economic policy between America, other countries and long standing trade agreements. As part of his speeches and ad-hoc comments when talking about international commerce, Trump also uses nativist rhetoric about untrustworthy fifth columnists that are the undoing of America.

Many of Trump’s suggestions are impractical and might have unintended consequences. Trump talks about deporting twelve million undocumented immigrants. Many of these residents are from Mexico. I do not see their stay as harm to the American economy. I believe that attempting to try to deport these undocumented immigrants en-masse if it were possible would be a disruptive measure and might have unintended consequences for starters in the service, construction and agricultural industries.

Further discussion about strengthening our borders and revising immigration policy is certainly an acceptable topic of conversation and part of the continuing conversation in American politics and government. However, political consensus about realistically creating a legal pathway to worker permits, residencies &/or citizenship requires a serious ongoing conversation, some compromise and realistic and workable options.

At the same time Trump calls for unrealistic mass deportations, he also campaigns about Mexican rapists and criminals coming across our borders. His rhetoric amounts to outright slander and scare tactics which bring out the worst in politics and the voters who choose to side with Trump’s false choices. The campaign pledge to build a wall between Mexico and the United States further inflames the rhetoric and is not conducive to productive negotiations with our Mexican neighbor. The demonizing of Mexicans is an attempt to try to make political points and re-engineer or possibly destroy the North American Free Trade (NAFTA) Agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada.

The recent uproar by especially Indiana voters over the announcement that The Carrier Air Conditioning Company was planning to leave the State of Indiana and the United States for Mexico to restart its manufacturing operations is an unfortunate part of America’s trade relations with Mexico and our free market capitalistic system. America’s population is more than two hundred million citizens larger than Mexico. The US economy is more than fifteen times greater than Mexico. The fifty billion dollar US trade deficit with Mexico is an abstraction. Americans for example come out ahead when Ford automobiles are assembled in Mexico instead of the United States.

If voters are looking for a greater effort from the government to make a difference that’s okay for those who have strong feelings and opinions and then want to direct their energies to the federal government to provide assistance.  However, talking about punishing Mexico is a false approach to managing the United States relations with Mexico.  I have an answer to the wrong-headed Trump policies which the Republican nominee proposes which I’ll discuss with you shortly.

I believe in the marketplace, but it cannot solve all of society’s social problems. Sometimes, capitalism falls short of meeting people’s needs and causes pain to citizens. With the economic system we live within, there are winners and losers. That’s the way the system works. However, if we fall short of a broad-based prosperity in the marketplace, I think that effective governmental action can help make the difference by creating an atmosphere of equity, opportunity and justice.

(I.) How Can America Make Better Choices?

The American free market capitalist system is the envy of the world. What are the largest companies in the world who are also based in America which are relatively new and which are changing the way commerce is conducted throughout the world? I’m thinking about Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Uber, Twitter, Netflix, Drop-Box, Hulu, Tesla Motors/Space X and Microsoft for starters. In addition to IT, we are strong in pharmaceuticals, medicine, transportation, financial services and much more. The private and the non-profit sectors comprise 75% of America’s economy. In terms of gross domestic product (GDP) which is tabulating the total cost of goods and services generated within a country during a calendar year, the United States economy is far larger than China’s and yet China’s total population is four times larger than the United States.

I don’t think that we can solely rely on the private sector to ensure continue economic growth as well as expanding and strengthening the middle class to give people greater equity, opportunity and justice. Heroic and supplemental governmental efforts may not change the hearts and minds of people? However, if more Americans feel that they have a stake in the system, we will be able to minimize disharmony, rebuild America and start the process of enhancing greater cohesiveness even between people who disagree in terms of politics and economics.

I believe that the next President should outline what categories of infrastructure projects can be initiated during the first administration over a four-year timeframe.  For starters, I’m thinking that it’s in America’s best interests to start rebuilding and repairing roads, bridges, sewage and water systems. Additional infrastructure initiatives could also include the nationwide electrical grid, mass transportation, internet band-width and energy. We need to collectively lean forward, listen closely and pull together to ensure that our country has a plan to energize the economy and at times I see government’s partnering with the private sector.

In the twentieth century, it was the federal government which in terms of job growth and affordable energy creation was able to build the Hoover Dam, the Tennessee Valley (TVA) Authority, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and provide tax incentives to help grow businesses including renewable energy (solar energy and wind farms). If the United States wishes to remain the last best hope for the world not just over the next few decades, but over the next one, two or three hundred years, it needs to remain focused on its economic health as well as to be prepared to reduce the potentially adverse after effects of climate change by focusing on newly required and important green technologies. If America retains its fiscal prowess, everything good which we stand will flow from that.

I think that what we are talking about is enlightened shared or self-interest. There will be good times and challenging times. I’m channeling my inner-biblical, Old Testament, Joseph who was imprisoned in Egypt and perhaps destined remain incarcerated for his lifetime or to be executed? Instead when told of the Pharaoh’s challenging dreams about seven fat cows and seven lean cows, Joseph was given an opportunity to meet with this empire’s supreme leader.  Joseph advised the Pharaoh to prepare his kingdom for future famine. In his response, the Pharaoh made Joseph his Prime Minister and together they were able to direct the people to store sufficient food for the times in which famine challenged the land of Egypt. Moving from times of antiquity to modern history, economics and all the rest, what we know is that even in countries with the most robust economies and the best financial plans we will still face times of recession.

I believe that effective governmental action can help maximize growth which is ongoing, sustainable and environmentally sound. In borrowing from the words of Ben Franklin, “We either hang together or surely we will hang separately.” What we strive for where I work, we can also wish for our entire country. At my job, we say, it’s all about teamwork and communication.  I believe that the same philosophy applies to the United States.

It’s often been said that, “Charity begins at home.” It’s understandable that many individuals and families are challenged enough in their lives whereby finding a good paying job and maintaining it, buying a home, parenting children through adulthood, going on an occasional vacation and saving for our children’s college and retirement keeps us busy enough. Perhaps if people are more prosperous, they will take a greater interest in the world around them with our country engaged in economic trading alliances as well as taking an interest in political, social and diplomatic relations with 95% of the world which is not American?

Someone near and dear to me once asked me, “Why should I care with what’s going on in the world?” I gave a quick and simple reply which is I think is truthful, helpful, succinct and on target. I said, “Well if the President implements a great economic plan with good fortune, we will see our retirement funds tied in with Wall Street continue to grow. We might also see lower inflation so that our income will buy more of the things we need to live our lives.” I also said that in a similar way, the chief executive in charge of operating the municipal government we both work for (our Mayor) will benefit us if he does a good job and with some good luck in terms of the quality of the life we live. Lastly under these circumstances, we might receive timelier cost of living raises? So, I can envision that initiatives at the federal, state and local levels, the public sector, can help make a difference.

(J.) Before We Can Understand the World Today, We First Need to Look at The Past Following WW II:

After ISIS emerged with attacks against civilian targets in Belgium and France later killing many innocent people in the United States, Africa and throughout Asia, a friend first called me on the phone and asked me, “What should we do?” I said America should not act impulsively and at the same time that the United States and its allies might continue to be engaged in countering this threat for some time. I added that we need to think comprehensively and collaboratively with policies involving economic, political and diplomatic, intelligence and military alliances in a similar way that we managed competition and at times war in response to the world-wide communist insurgency during a period of time known as The Cold War.

For example, shortly after the end of World War II, both Greece and Turkey were both faced with communist aggression both from within and from outside its borders which threatened to overthrow the existing governments. As an interim measure, the United Stated provided military aid in the form of weapons to our friends and allies. This policy was referred to as “The Truman Doctrine”. In addition, the United States decided to offer economic aid to help Western European allies to prevent mass starvation and to help get devastated industries off the ground so that they could be rebuilt because of the destruction caused by WWII.  This initiative was referred to as “The Marshall Plan” after America’s Secretary of State George Marshall.  On a short term basis, these polices were effective.

Shortly thereafter, it became apparent that the competition between the United States and its allies to protect its citizenry with new and enhanced policies and programs in order to engage our adversaries on an extended basis. A major influence on how to use American power was outlined in an essay in the 1940s post-WWII which advocated by a man who was an intellectual, an academic, a statesman and a diplomat. His name was George Kennan. Kennan believed that western democracies could best engage the communists by what became known as the “Containment Theory”. This overriding principle advocated that the West needed to counter the Soviet and their allies not in only military and intelligence terms but through economic programs as well as politics and diplomacy.

 At the same time, the United States helped create a military alliance with our allies which included the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany and other western industrialized nations. This military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) Organization, was created to counter the Soviets’ Warsaw Pact military alliance which included Central European communist countries. NATO helped keep the peace in the European continent and ensured the absence of conflict in this part of the world. As a Roman Military History once wrote, “If you come in peace, prepare for war.” We did prepare our allies and our homeland and it worked in a competition against our competitors and adversaries.

 The United States also encouraged our European allies to join together as an economic alliance to become the United States of Europe. First through trade agreements and then the establishment of a European Union, institutions were created which helped strengthen Western European nations as a block while still retaining each nation’s individual identity and independence. Over time, this transition eventually led to the inclusion of Central European nations who no longer were subject to Russian domination and communism. Most recently, we have seen the introduction of a common currency known as “The Euro” replacing each EU nations’ local currency.

The United States also played a major role in creating financial institutions known as The World Bank and a second source of economic assistance known as the International Monetary (IMF) Fund. The IMF which is usually directed by a European was created primarily to help western democracies strengthen their economies. The IMF specializes in statistical analyses, currency exchange rate issues, budgetary matters and now short term loans to developing nations.

The World Bank who’s director is appointed by the United States was established to provide targeted aid in the form of loans to new, non-aligned, nations known as the developing world or third world nations. The idea behind creating these sources of economic aid was that the international communist insurgency might sound seductive to some western industrialized and many new nations. These developing world countries were once colonies of western democracies and counter-measures were needed by the US to ensure alliances with new neutral nations by promoting economic growth in a capitalist system where political leaders could come to power in new nations through democratic elections.

In the timeframe post WW II, the United States, its allies and the United Nations, worked to ensure that these new nations would be directed toward economic growth through the green revolution in food production. World Bank loans helped get new industries in the third world off-the- ground helped enhance economic growth. Also, a new successful and popular policy of micro-loans from local financial institutions was established to help raise many of its citizens, by growing cottage industries, to transition families from extreme poverty to poverty and eventual prosperity within developing nations.

The thinking was that by growing the economies of third world nations with financial aid from the west, it would be possible to be able to find a way to provide for individuals and families with housing, food, clothing, education, health care and systems to ensure sustainable farming and food production, clean drinking water and sewage treatment systems. With all this in place, then peace in the developing world and the creation of new alliances would be possible while successfully competing with communism. It was felt under the “Containment Theory’ that this was a battle America could win.

Regarding my friend’s initial phone call and my comments in the preceding paragraphs, I just gave my readers a more detailed answer of past American actions to counter communism and protect the homeland and our allies and to reach out to new nations. Now, the world has changed, over the past 50-60 years. In 2016 and in the future, it may now be necessary for new thinking to fight this merging battle with ISIS and al-Qaeda with different policies, programs and tactics? To try a new approach, may require new funding and a revised overall plan channeling the kind of thinking which helped our policy makers implement the original “The Containment Theory.”

(K.) The End of the Cold War and The Multi-Polar World We Are Now Living In:

It been now twenty-five years since the Soviet Empire disintegrated due to the fact that the Soviet economic model was inefficient, unproductive and not competitive with the United States and the West. Parts of the Soviet Empire on its southern tier have become independent and have maintained both good relations with both the United States and the new nation now once again called Russia. The Soviet’s Central European satellite nations have withdrawn from the Warsaw Pact which no longer remains an arm of Soviet or Russian military and economic might.  Countries like Poland and Hungry have paid-off massive national debts, have robust private economic sectors which are part of the free-enterprise-system and have joined Western Europeans in order to be part of the European Union economic and trading block.

These former Soviet satellites, based upon hundreds of years’ experiences, are fearful of Russia and readily want the United States to follow through with confidence building measures. The United States through NATO participates in war games with the involvement of Central European nations and pre-positions tanks, other weapons and supplies within these nations and at their request which is why many have joined this alliance. So, economic prosperity, politics/diplomacy as well as military might and intelligence capabilities go hand-in-hand in maintaining the new status quo on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and now within Central Europe.

(L.) Let’s Look at the What’s Going On Now, Pull It All Together and Develop A Calm Rational Plan to Manage America’s Place In the Post-Cold War:

In the post-Cold War digitalized world, the paradoxes and complexities are ongoing. The world is getting smaller and smaller. Information travels across the globe literally in seconds. In addition, our economies are integrated and this interdependence creates the need for cooperation at the same time there is competition. Everyone and that includes individuals as well as nations and alliances have work to do because adjustments in these ever-changing times must be made for the world to go forward and for the need for enhanced growth and prosperity for all.

(L.1.) What Can the United States Do to Manage Its Relationship with China?

Crises and challenges need to be looked at as much as possible from a cost effective, historical, dispassionate and sustainable point of view. Every country I can think of throughout our world has work to do. For example, China which is now being talked about in the way that we looked at Japan in the late 1970s and early 1980s is thought of to be an economic powerhouse.  When not too long ago, the Chinese Shanghai Stock Market started to implode, those in the western press took a more in-depth analysis of the Chinese Achilles Heel which is a euphemism for the Chinese systems’ weaknesses. With unprecedented growth in the Chinese economy, what I was reading in Time Magazine was about the communist leadership’s underlying fear that if the economy stopped its robust economic growth, how would people through this country react?

Would an ongoing recession cause fissures in the social harmony among those in power in the communist party, the government, the private sector, the military, the intelligence community and in law enforcement throughout the country at the local, regional and national levels? Would the underlying agreement between those in power especially the communist party and the private sector be jeopardized because of problematic social disharmony in ways far greater than ever before and not easily answered by brutal suppression such as the Tiananmen Square episode of thirty-five years ago?

We have our own share of challenges in the United States. But as an American, I don’t envy what the Chinese face even with their often robust economy. It seems to me that China needs to maintain ongoing economic growth including the closing down of unprofitable businesses subsidized by the central government’s national bank including the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) while transitioning to greater freedom of expression and democracy, combating global warming and moving on to clean energy technologies and facing a population imbalance propelled by thirty-five years of the one child only rule.

In addition, a second demographic imbalance in China relates to the fact that there are greater numbers of males to females resulting from a social issue where newborn males are preferred over females. To compound this problem, the use of modern technological capabilities through use of sonograms and abortions allow some families to have the more highly prized males as their one allotted child.

America is needed because of its national security interests in its pivot to Asia through projection of its navy as China continues to build aircraft carriers, create artificial islands for deploying its air power, temporarily erecting oil drilling platforms in Vietnam’s territorial waters to satisfy its need for energy resources while enhancing Chinese presence in this region of the world. America benefits from ongoing trade with our Pacific Ocean allies in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Canada and Latin America as well as trading partners close-by in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Singapore and a new economic relationship with Vietnam.

I’m hopeful that in the lame-duck Congress, this legislature approves Obama’s Trans-Pacific (TPP) Partnership Trade Agreement will help America increase its economic engagement in this part of the world. If there is room for compromise in environmental, legal and labor provisions of this agreement which won’t undermine five or more years of negotiations, then hopefully the Congress and the President hopefully can reach an effective compromise.

China has also established a financial institution, The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, that some economists believe will rival the World Bank and the IMF in its importance. China may have created this institution because it will enhance its world-wide political influence and economic power? It’s possible that China’s leadership collectively felt left out of its participation with the World Bank and the IMF? I think that the new President at some point in the first administration, starting in 2017, should consider United States participation in the Chinese new world-wide lending bank and also encourage Japanese to join us.

 I think that it’s better to be at the negotiating table and involved in managing the investment bank’s policy, programs, contributions, collaboration and distribution of loans and grants. The goal is not to win or beat China in some imaginary race. The necessity is for America to meet its national security interests to enhance its economic prosperity while at the same time managing its relationship with China, cooperating with its allies and improving its relationship with a new trading partner, Vietnam, which wants American engagement.

Although the North Korean nuclear issue at times feels like an uncontrollable situation, it’s in the best interests of China, America and other parties in the neighborhood to engage North Korea to restrain its hostile and militaristic behavior. China is the one country with the greatest leverage to control its neighbor and ally under new and untested leadership.

(L.2.) The Middle East, Russia, the European Union/NATO, the United Kingdom and China Are All Connected: How to Manage Problematic Situations and Move Forward to Beneficial and Ongoing Outcomes:

The title of this section is rather ambitious. Shortly, I will describe how the post-industrial world is all connected and how we in the United States can move forward to beneficial outcomes. My goal is to provide my readers with relevant information and insightful observations with an economy of words. But before I do so, I want to tell you a sports metaphor that will relate to what’s going on in the world today.

(L.3.) Ain’t We Amazing? “It Was A Team Effort”:

In 1962, The New York Mets were permitted to enter major league baseball’s National League as a new franchise team as a way for the City of New York to be compensated for the 1958 loss of both the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants in a move to the West Coast cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. In its first season, the Mets were without a stadium. Shea Stadium and later Citi-Field were not yet built. So, the Mets rented space at the former home of the now departed New York Giants at the Polo Grounds in North Manhattan. In order to help the Mets off to a strong start, they hired former New York Yankees manager, Casey Stengel, who had previously lead the Yankees to seven World Series Championships and ten American League Pennant teams over twelve seasons between 1949 and 1960 and he would eventually be inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

The Mets unfortunately had one of the worst regular season records in modern baseball history in its first season in 1962. At the end of the last game of the regular season, the starting pitcher Roger Craig approached Casey Stengel in the team’s locker room and said, “I didn’t pitch well today. I could have performed better. I let the team down.” With an overall record of forty wins and one hundred and twenty loses, Stengel knew that one outstanding game at the end of the long losing inaugural season game was not going to change much. Stengel in order to assuage the concerns of his starting pitcher and with a little bit of humor told Craig the following, “Don’t worry son. It’s not your fault. It was a team effort.”

Within seven years, the Mets were able to perform a near-miracle and greatly improve their ball club and in spectacular fashion upset the highly favored Baltimore Orioles and won the prized World Series of 1969. To Mets fans throughout its home borough of Queens as well as all-over the City and State of New York, this team was known to as “The Amazing Mets”. What I can tell you as a baseball fan, as an observer of current events and history and an Internet-Blogger, I know a few truths which I will share with you.

 For example, I know that things seem to stay the same in the world we live-in. However, in reality they are almost always changing. I’m also aware that minor miracles are possible. In addition, from time-to-time and when things work out in baseball or in most other aspects of life, it frequently is a team effort which makes a difference. Lastly, let me simply state that in most successful team-efforts chance favors the well-prepared plan, team and individuals.

Finally, I caution my fellow Americans who may vote differently than me, be careful what you wish for because with great power as voters you may get what you want and then you might have to deal with uncomfortable and unprofitable consequences. Lastly, I caution my readers to “Think Brexit.” Take a deep breath and clear your mind and think again.

For example, if you were British, many of you may change your mind, call for a do-over, vote again and then “Remain” in the EU.  It may not be as exciting but it’s a better arrangement for many nations and citizens (men or women on the street) and the need for a greater good.

(L.4.) Let’s Take An Illuminating But Concise Look at the Last Hundred Years in World History:

During the past one hundred years, the world has gone through two hugely destructive World Wars (I and II), between the major industrialized nations and the worlds most populated nation China and its neighbors Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea. Secondly after WWI, Russia went through a revolution with the Communists, led by Bolsheviks’ also known as the Red Army, winning against the Russian White Army and created a new empire known as the Soviet Union. Under communist ideology, the Soviet Union possessed a messianic vision of world revolution and conquest under its merged political, military and economic ideology.

The United States and its allies tried to counter these efforts through the creation of the NATO military alliance and economic agreements. Thirdly, China went through a civil war where the Communists defeated the Nationalists who were led by an ineffective warlord who set up his base of power and a new nation on the Island of Taiwan.

At the end of WWI, the Ottoman Empire led by the Turks crumbled with the Arab nations reaching near independence with a temporary British and French military and civilian authority filling of the power vacuum as part of each nations colonial empire. The twenty-two Arab nations eventually found full independence with some of these countries reaching great wealth because of the world’s need for energy in particular oil. The twenty-two Arab nations have overall fallen short as successful nations and now face insurgences with two non-nation entities known as ISIS and al-Qaeda that possess toxic philosophies, advanced through its war crimes falsely justified in the name of Islam, the Prophet (Muhammed) and G-d (Allah) himself. Both groups commit murder, rely on terror and now control parts of Iraq, Syria and Libya which is largely financed from oil expropriated from Kirkuk, Iraq, and through sham-charities operating throughout the Muslim World.

The predominant religion in this part of the world is Islam. People who belong to this religion of 1.6 billion people are called Muslims. 85% of all Muslims are members of a group who refer to themselves as Sunnis whose holiest sites are in Saudi Arabia’s cities known as Mecca and Medina. The remainder of the world’s Muslims call themselves Shiites with the largest population in Persian Iran. When people in the United States and throughout the west think of Muslims, they think of Arabs. But, only 20% of all Muslims are Arabs. The most populated Muslim countries in the world are non-Arab nations including Turkey, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines, China and Russia.

Middle Eastern countries have had problems which have held it back for a variety of reasons. First, the twenty-two independent Arab nations have never really made a complete and successful change to democracy; Secondly, those Arab nations even with great amounts of oil wealth have not yet successfully made the transition to a post-industrial economy which has held the Arab world back in terms of prosperity except of a few citizens. Thirdly in many Arab societies, women have not been granted the same rights as men in terms of education and jobs in the world of work.  So by men not allowing women to fully participate, Arab societies are unnecessarily eliminating half their adult brainpower and limiting economic growth to those who could be most helpful. Lastly, the larger Muslim world has been unable to reconcile differences between its two main branches, Sunnis and Shiites, which has led to disharmony including warfare between and within nations. All of the above have played a role in the problems caused by the creation of al-Qaeda and ISIS and permitted these terrorist organizations to grow.

(M.1.) Concluding Thoughts - Part 1 -The Cold War and Post 9/11:

On September 11^th, 2001, a terrible act of war was committed against the United States by a group of twenty-one young men who were al-Qaeda terrorists and succeeded in hijacking two airplanes fully loaded with jet fuel and crashed each plane into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) which was located at a juxtaposition between the center of municipal government and the financial center (Wall Street). Why did a group affiliated within the Middle East attack the financial capital of the United States (New York City) and attempt other attacks including at our nation’s Pentagon which serves as the planning and operational control center of America’s military and defense operations? The answer raised by these questions has multiple answers and the solution(s) are elusive.

Approximately, 3,400 innocent people, mostly American citizens, died on this day because one murderous group had a homicidal agenda and a strong disagreement with the United States. I have cited several limitations of the countries of the Middle East and the frustration of many citizens with their governments’ inability to solve problems. In addition, the West including Europe and the United States along with Russia have all played a role in shaping the political and economic status of this area of Asia and Africa known as the Middle East. Quoting from my sports metaphor and a Hall of Fame manager and I agree that the problems of the Middle East, “Were a team effort.” So as we shortly conclude this essay, I am not looking to affix the blame, I am seeking to help solve the problem.

For some time, especially from 1948 to 1967, many people throughout the Middle East and the western industrialized world stated that the core issue which needed to be resolved before peace could be established in this part of the world was the Arab and Israel conflict. After Israel won the Six Day War in biblical-like fashion, Jerusalem was controlled by the Israel and the Kingdom of Jordan no longer ruled the West Bank. Israel now controlled this land.

It was at that time, the Arab League changed responsibility for future rulership of the West Bank bordering Israel to a non-nation group known as the Palestinian Liberation (PLO) Organization. Therefore, in terms of any future negotiation to end a conflict which was won by Israel in a defensive war to save itself from destruction, Yasser Arafat leader of the PLO and not King Hussein ruler of Jordan was empowered to have a seat at the negotiating table.

Talks for a final peace treaty to end all conflicts came breathtakingly close to being concluded in the year 2000 where the PLO’s Chairman and now new Palestinian Authority President, Yasser Arafat, spoke with the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, with United States President, Bill Clinton, serving as the moderator. From what I have read, it’s been recorded that Arafat was able to achieve 90% of his demands being accommodated in negotiations but he simply walked away. Since then despite subsequent attempts by new US Presidents as well as Palestinian and Israeli leaders to reinvigorate the peace process, these efforts have fallen far short of a comprehensive and permanent peace treaty. To complicate matters even further, the Palestinian leaders has been split in two and reconciliation between Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority which is in control over the West Bank are still enemies after an election and a civil war which resulted in a Hamas victory and rule over Gaza.

The center-left peace camp led by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni in Israel has on repeated occasions narrowly lost parliamentary elections because of its inability to find coalition partners to equal a majority in its parliament (Knesset). The conservative, center-right, government led by Likud’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has become more inflexible in its position. From the present Israeli government’s perspective, its openness has been exploited by the Arab side. For example, when Israel withdrew from Gaza, Hamas and another group, Islamic Jihad, frequently directed rockets attacks against Israel’s military and civilian population. Secondly, once Israel withdrew from a twenty-mile swath of land in Lebanon south of this nation’s Litani River a powerful local Shiite militia known as Hezbollah has launched rocket attacks throughout Israel. Thirdly during this timeframe, the Palestinian leadership turned a blind-eye to a leaderless revolt over Israeli rule of the West Bank called the Intifada (I and II), Israel has temporarily suppressed these attacks. However, there is no clear military winner and the ongoing conflict and controversy continues between Arabs and Israel. Did the Arabs believe that Israeli withdrawals from other territories’ show weakness? Perhaps?

For the purpose of this conversation, I will arguably state that a turning point in modern Middle East history was (and is) Israel’s victory in the Six Day War. In June of 1967, the Syrian, Jordanian and Egyptian armies were an existential threat to Israel’s very survival by massing its armies on Israel’s borders and attempting to surround Israel through a naval blockade in both the Gulf of Aqaba and the Mediterranean Sea. Israel’s surprise preemptive air strike led by its use of French Mirage jet fighter planes led to an overwhelming victory. Since this war, Israel’s desire to hold on to the West Bank stems from a strong national security and military priority. Secondly, Israeli citizens have legally purchased land formerly owned by Arab (and Muslim) Palestinians. 

Israel has problems reconciling its challenging rule of the West Bank. There are pluses and minuses to the current Israeli position. It is my opinion that the minuses out-weigh the pluses. What I am about to advocate I believe is the best way forward for both Israel and Arab nations.

In military terms, the West Bank gives Israel a comfortable buffer in the event that a war breaks out. If a new and full-scale conflict were to occur, the country could not easily be split in half if the Israeli military withdrew to the pre-1967 war borders also referred to as “The Green Line”. There is also an ethical question which has never been completely addressed by the State of Israel which needs to be discussed in this essay. It’s my interpretation that if Israel feels a right to have rulership over the land but does not make Palestinians’ Israeli citizens or permit them to be citizens of a new nation named Palestine, Israel has a problematic issue to resolve.

It appears to some people in western democracies feel that Palestinians are being treated as second-class citizens with no right to vote while at the same time Israel claims legal and security authority over part of the land of the West Bank. Consistent ethnics would give Israel responsibilities over both the people as well as the land. The status quo continues this inconsistency. If Israel were an authoritarian state “where might makes right” and ethics be damned rather than remaining as a democracy and a country of laws, then the morality of majority rules resulting in who has sovereignty over  the West Bank might recede in importance?

The whole basis for negotiations over the past twenty years has been the goal of there ultimately being a two-state solution with one nation remaining as Israel and the second new nation being called Palestine. So in effect with a significant population of Palestinian Arabs who are mostly Muslim, there is a strong desire to build an independent nation. With the birth rate of Palestinian Arabs growing at a higher rate than the Jews of Israel’s, the demographic factor presents another challenge and a new existential threat to Israel. What if both Israel and Palestinian Arabs one day said, “We no longer want a country of our own. We want to join with Israel and be once nation where all Arabs inside of Greater Israel would have the same rights as Jews.”

Keeping this one-state hypothetical solution in mind, the nation of Israel in a newly configured democracy might be renamed Israel-Palestine and would demographically be approximately 50% Jewish and 50% Arab and Muslim. Thus Israel, would no longer be a country with a Jewish majority. So if Israel can find a way of extracting itself from all or most of the West Bank, a permanent peace could be achieved with Palestine which constitutes the West Bank. At some time in the future, perhaps somehow a peace can be achieved with Gaza and Hamas to join the new Palestinian nation?

Thus, a negotiated peace is easier said than done. I won’t try to negotiate with both parties nor advocate who is right and who is wrong. I simply feel that now that Israel’s existential right to exist is not under the immediate military threat that it once was. Now or sometime soon is the time to take an opportunity for Israel to try to take bold action to try to find a final peace with the Palestinian leadership. If the center-right led by the Likud and its partners with Netanyahu as the leader cannot do the job, perhaps the center-left lead by Labor, Herzog and Livni should be given an opportunity?

The Middle East is ablaze in war in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen with non-nation terrorists, ISIS and al-Qaeda, both fielding armies with Persian Iran directly opposing these terrorists especially through its support of its alliance with the Hezbollah militia. To further add to the confusion, the West considers Hezbollah to also be a terrorist group. It may sound counter-intuitive to some. However, I believe that now is the time for Israel to make a concerted effort to achieve a final peace with the Palestinian Authority even though previous and recent attempts have exhausted both parties. And now, I will tell you why?

The negotiating tactics on both sides with the United States as an intermediary have been discussed for some time and already written at great length by other experts on all sides of this issue. There is nothing new I could add to enhance the political negotiations. However, I can think of economic and diplomatic incentives which might create advantages to both sides and might readily bring the newly created Palestinian State and its neighbor, Israel, into agreement with a permanent peace and create a template for others to follow.  

For starters, there are unexploited reservoirs of natural gas and oil off the shore of the Gaza Strip. If Israel, Egypt, the Arab League, United States, the Palestinian Authority and perhaps the Russians, the European Union and the big oil companies could provide assistance in developing the extraction of these natural resources, the funds generated if spent wisely could be used to rebuild war-torn Gaza and provide economic aid to businesses and individuals in the West Bank and Palestinian communities throughout the Middle East.

Secondly in terms of water management and sewage treatment systems, Israel is a world leader in conservation, processing of waste water and desalinization. Each year, a greater and greater percentage of Israel’s water supply comes from water than was once brackish sea water and now is now used for agriculture to grow crops. So if there is a continuation of regional draught, Israel is ready, even more-so than its neighbors, to meet these kinds of challenges.

Thirdly, Israel is also a world leader when it comes to its information technology (IT) sector as well as desert farming through its drip irrigation method which allows an economical use of water in growing crops on the edge of the Negev desert. In 1975-76 when I visited Israel for ten days, I witnessed this miracle of modern technology and farming. Imagine if Israel could share this technology with its neighbors?

If all interested parties including the Palestinians (West Bank & Gaza) and Israel can agree to a permanent peace and stop all forms of warfare, I think that loans and grants coming from wealthy post-industrialized nations and some of the wealthier Arab nations would be considered a good Middle East investment.  Israel would be more than willing to share its technology with Palestine, Jordan and other Arab nations. Down the road, the twenty-two existing nations which comprise the Arab League and the newly created State of Palestine along with Israel could create their own economic trading block to rival the United States, the European Union, Russia, China and Japan. This trading block would allow Israel to share its technology prowess with its Arab neighbors which would remarkably bring together 4,000 years’ of history to the biblical descendants of the children of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar who are the patriarch and matriarchs of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. When you think about it regarding people of monotheistic faiths, we’re all cousins.

In conclusion of this section, let me state the following why I think an economic alliance between Arabs and Israel is possible. George Bernard Shaw and Robert F. Kennedy on different occasions both once said, “You see things that are and say, “Why?”” I dream things that never were and say, ‘Why not?” Not too long ago, I thought that the Palestinian-Israel conflict was not the key to what’s going wrong in the Middle East and surrounding lands. I told myself, “The Middle East has far too many problems. The crucial differences are not just between Arab nations and Israel”. 

However, after some deliberation, I’ve decided to walk-back this thinking and I can see it being a template for peace to extend throughout the Arab and Muslim world and with Israel. With a Middle East Common Market, the problems caused by Syrian immigration mass exodus causing collateral instability to European nations, a plethora of other problems in the Arab world and the United Kingdom’s hasty and ill-advised vote to leave the European Union might be relieved and eventually be reversed? So in my way of thinking, dreaming positive and progressive thoughts as well acting to heal this part of the world is a good thing.

My change of thinking reveals the possibility and the importance of a historical event in the Middle East which could trigger a wave of positive events. I am thinking of positive events which can change people’s mind-set as well as bring peace and prosperity not only to the Middle East but also to be of great value to the world.  Therefore, in borrowing the words of the late Baseball Hall of Fame manager, Casey Stengel, I see the possibility of a “team effort” among allies and, perhaps, adversaries which can help heal the world.

I am sixty-one years old. With recent deaths of cherished members of my family who were in their late eighties and early nineties and thinking about my future, it’s important for me to see a way where we can help make the world a better place it was when I leave it than when I was born and came into it. We owe it to our children and future grandchildren to make efforts to make the United States and other nations a kinder, gentler and more prosperous reality.

(M.2.) Concluding Thoughts - Part II:

If my readers may be frustrated because it feels like in the multi-polar world we live in, it all seems so disorderly and on the verge of falling apart in concluding this essay, I will try to assuage the concerns of all. Please don’t be too discouraged. We have arrived at this place in history because we all played a role. If we got into it the current situation, we can get out of it.

Digitalization has brought the world closer together. However, at the same time in many countries people have coalesced into tribal-way of thinking, it seems that in Europe, Asia and Africa, some countries are in the verge of splitting in two or three. The people in these nations feel that they are losing out in the competition for global trade. The easy answers are creating tariffs on foreign trade and/or building a wall to keep undesirables out.

Perhaps part of the problem is that in the economics of today’s world, events have moved at such rapid pace and adversely affected displaced workers? Part of the remedy lies somewhere with government programs providing job retraining, housing, health care and income assistance in order to help displaced workers to sustain their families and as individuals?

After all the United Kingdom has been through between WWI & II and the Cold War as America’s and Europe’s reliable ally in combat and in commerce, through NATO and its role in international finance and trade, its participation as a member of the European Union was (and is) a great achievement in European and in world history. The US, UK and the EU are a source for prosperity and a validation that the economic system in the West is worth continuing. Free-market capitalism modified with social programs was (and is) the right model as compared to the communist system which threatened to overwhelm Europe for forty-five years.

What will happen to the United Kingdom? Will it determine that a hastily arranged plebiscite should be put aside until a later time and reaffirm that it will remain in the world’s largest trading block? The EU’s combined gross domestic product (GDP) is nearly as great as the United States.  Will the UK instead devolve with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as England reaching separate trading arrangements with the EU? Will other nations within Europe also decide to split apart? For example, Catalonia will be holding a vote to determine if it should leave or remain as part of Spain in the future? Democracies do not always proceed on a straightforward progressive path. I hope Europe stays united. With unity, there is strength and a chance to ensure greater prosperity for all.

We should be thankful that we live in the nation that we do. We eliminated the possibility of America’s disunion forever one hundred fifty-one years ago when the civil war ended. Thank G-d for Lincoln’s political leadership and the efforts of his fighting generals Grant, Sheridan and Sherman.

In the succeeding years, it has not always been pleasant for many people living in America. We still have disharmony and unfinished political, economic and social issues to work through. But, we have the means to improve the United States if we are unified. In addition, if we plan ahead and pull together in terms of an overall purpose whereby we improve our country and grow our economy, I am optimistic for America’s future. Throughout this process, we need to create greater incentives for equity, opportunity and justice as well as expand and strengthen the middle class to include those Americans who need a leg-up and not just a hand-out.

This essay aligns American domestic policy with foreign affairs because it’s all connected. We live in an interdependent world. It was said by one esteemed commentator , Oliver Wendell Homes a United States Supreme Court Justice,  in an objective appraisal mixed with a little bit of humor said that perhaps one of our greatest Presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), had “A second rate intellect and a first rate temperament”. At this crucial time in American history we need cool calm FDR-like leadership reflecting our nation’s overall disposition not just at the Presidential-level but also among other leaders as well as men and women in all-walks-of-like. We need to sort things out, make smart decisions on policies and programs as well as rationally and cohesively move forward together as a nation.

It's all about values - I'm a product of the environment I was raised in ...

It’s About Values:  I’m a Product of the Environment I                                          Was Raised In

                                By Michael Smook

During my first three blogs, I wrote about how we can fix our politics and governing in America and create win-win situations to expand the economic pie to provide equity, opportunity and justice to many more Americans. The other two essays are about my thoughts and feelings related to psychology and spirituality. My thinking was initially shaped in the home I was raised in. So therefore, I hope to go further than my previous blogs and talk about my upbringing and the values which I still carry with me. My values reflect my evolving thoughts and feelings throughout my adult life as I am now in my late middle age.

(A.) Introduction:

One of the nice things about getting older is that you know yourself and feel comfortable inside your own skin. Whenever I get up in the morning either for work or it’s my day-off, I try to dress well because I am conscious of how I look not only to please myself and my family, but also to project a positive self to friends, co-workers, acquaintances and everyone else. I’m also aware that people frequently view me through my body language, my facial expressions, the tone of my voice, non-verbal clues and how I convey my thoughts and feelings. I’m not a narcissist and I am far from perfect. It’s just that in my life as an adult, I’ve had an opportunity to reinvent myself which relates to enhancing my self-esteem. In summary, I believe that if you truly like yourself, then everything else in your life flows from that.

Life continually presents various and unexpected challenges. In order to handle situations, I work at staying focused and listening closely to whomever I am interacting with. At all times, I try to maintain the proper balance of confidence and humility. I find that many people do not necessarily think and feel the way I do. So secondly, I frequently tell myself, “If I cannot modify someone else’s behavior and I can adjust my perspective, the world changes underneath my feet.” Therefore, in terms of many of the positives which reflect how I now think and feel, I offer much praise to my grandparents, my parents as well as my siblings and friends. Thus in summary, “I am a product of the environment that I was raised in.”

(B.) It All Starts with My Great Grandparents and My Grandparents:

I’ve never been inclined to dig deep through Ancestry.Com nor any other resources to learn more about my family tree. Perhaps one day that may change? I’m not certain where my mother’s grandparents came from in Europe or when they came to the United States? What I know at is this time is the following:

I loved my mother’s parents very much. My maternal grandmother died prematurely when I was four years old. Whenever she came to visit our home with my grandfather, she always seemed to come with groceries which she bought at a supermarket (of course) including fresh fruit and orange juice. Also, I remember that she was a kind, soft-spoken, cheerful, thoughtful and warm person. My grandfather’s personality reflected that he was sociable, talkative, affectionate, upbeat and was a dapper dresser. With a shock of gray hair, he resembled Charlie Chaplin, the famous silent film actor, when Chaplin was in his 50s and 60s. My grandfather also liked to smoke a cigar and drink whiskey when visiting my parents’ home visiting before dinner on a late Sunday afternoon. He sold gentleman’s hats for a living. It was a profitable business because in those days many men who worked in white collar professions wore a proper hat with a business suit to work every day. I presume that he was successful in his career because once he retired my grandfather lived in a very nice residential apartment with his second wife and traveled widely.

Regarding my father’s side, I know that my great grandparents came to the United States in 1894 from a town called Sighet, Romania, which is along this country’s border to Hungary. I’m thankful that my great grandparents left Sighet when they did. Otherwise, I might not be writing to you today because many Romanian Jews were unable to escape the Nazis responsible for the Holocaust during World War II. My paternal grandparents were either born overseas or within the United States? They grew up speaking both English and Yiddish. Yiddish was a language spoken by many Eastern European Jews.

My grandparents married at a young age. When they became husband and wife, my grandfather was twenty-three years old and my grandmother was seventeen. Within two years of their marriage, their first child, my uncle was born. My father was next three years later. Then five years later, a third son who would also one day become my uncle was born.

The story that was told to me as a small child was that before and during World War I, my grandfather first served a tour of duty in the United States Navy and later in the United States Army. I don’t know how this came about? However, it must have been an interesting story. Upon discharge from military service, my grandfather with no time for college went into business with his brothers and started a company which included a Manhattan parking garage which provided a unique service because a gas pump was located inside this building to provide gasoline for paying customers.

Eventually, my grandfather branched out by leasing a chain of gas stations within the City of New York and in the Long Island suburbs of Nassau and Suffolk Counties. I am uncertain how my grandfather was able to raise the capital necessary to start and maintain his business and/or whether his brothers remained as business partners? Maybe the Smook Brothers pooled their money together? Or maybe they secured a loan from a bank? I do know that my grandfather was able to keep his organization operational during the Great Economic Depression of the 1930s which was a difficult time for small businesses and consumers. Also in the 1940s during World War II when gas was rationed and price controls were in place, my grandfather faced new challenges to his company. At that time, our nation needed to fight fascism and gasoline was a precious resource. Thus at that time, the country was unified with a sense of shared sacrifice.

I do know that eventually my grandfather transitioned from leasing the land he operated his businesses to buying the land and renting them out to other businesses including a supermarket, a 7/11 Convenience Store, a Friendly’s Restaurant and other gasoline and automobile service repair businesses. Thus, my grandfather’s business survived the lean years and his family including my father benefited from this success.

My grandfather was a Mason which has historically been a fraternal order which performs charitable work, presents opportunities for members to make business contacts which can help fellow entrepreneurs. In the past, many Jews in business and other professions have been drawn to Masonic Lodges because this organization has a history of open mindedness consisting of free thinkers. As an often persecuted people, Jews from many professions when not focusing on their work, families or synagogue and Jewish communal organizations have looked to Masonic Lodges as a place to meet and work with people who are supportive and helpful.

For me, the thing about my paternal grandfather that I find very interesting were two famous friends who he developed life-long relationships with. One of these fellows was a brilliant attorney, a private practitioner, who is most famous for suing the federal government and successfully appealing his case before the United State Supreme Court which made a landmark decision in favor this persuasive lawyer, his co-counsels and his clients.  This appeal was known as “Schechter Poultry Vs. the Unites States” and helped invalidate a portion of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (FDR’s) New Deal domestic economic policy regulations. My father later worked for this man for a year as an Attorney-Intern in 1950-51 while studying for the New York State bar exam which he passed on the first attempt and which was (is) required to practice law in the State of New York. This family friend and his wife attended my bar mitzvah when I was thirteen. What I remember from that day and on other occasions was that my grandfather’s friend would first go to my synagogue’s library and read through parts of a book about Jewish law (Halacha) whenever he visited our house of worship and before he entered the sanctuary.

My grandfather’s other famous friend was physician who served in the military in a high rank in the Far East and had great responsibility in charge of Medical Administration. I am told that as part of his duties he would travel to China to meet from time-to-time with the Nationalist Chinese Political and Military Leader know as Chiang Kai-Shek. After this gentleman’s discharge from the military at the end of World War II, he was appointed as the City of New York’s Commissioner of Hospitals. He later played a prominent role in the founding of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx and remained working for this institution in a high administrative position.   

So what qualities did my grandfather have which made him a success in business and able to maintain such well known, prominent and successful friends? I recall one conversation which gives me a clue in finding a logical answer. When I was eight or nine years old, I remember listening to my grandfather speaking with my dad and my uncles about how impressed he was with the great economic success the country of Japan was going through less than one generation post-World War II. Looking back at that time in 1964, Tokyo, Japan hosted the Olympic Games.  What this discussion leads me to believe is that my grandfather must have watched TV news and listened to the radio with great attention and interest regarding what was going on in politics, economics and business locally, state-wide, nationally and throughout the world.

My grandfather must have also regularly read the newspaper. I know this because there is a story going back to when the family lived in Williamsburg (Brooklyn). My grandfather had a family pet, a dog, named Mischief. Was he a German Shepard? Perhaps? I’m not sure? Anyway, the dog was trained to go into town a few blocks away from home unescorted to a newsstand and brought back the daily paper that was already paid for in advance. Thus rather than having a delivery boy bring the paper, the dog did the work for my grandfather and the family. I think that the story is interesting, unique and charming. In summary, my grandfather must have been very intelligent with a thirst for knowledge and social skills because he was a devoted family man, a good friend, a successful businessman and a stalwart Mason.

(C.) A Sunday Late Afternoon at My Grandparents Home in Nassau Country Long Island:

I would like to share an interesting story with my blog readers. I do recall a memorable Sunday late afternoon dinner at my grandparents’ home in Nassau Country Long Island. At the time of this meal in the early 1960s, I was eight or nine years old and my grandparents had been living in the suburbs since 1939 after having resided in Williamsburg (Brooklyn) for many years. Before I tell this story, please bear with me and let me digress for two paragraphs.

Back in Williamsburg, different generations of the Smook Family all lived on different floors of a Brownstone apartment. I am uncertain whether my grandparents owned this building or were renters? This building no longer exists. Thanks to the master builder, Robert Moses, the Smook residence on Rodney Street was knocked down to make way for the Brooklyn Queens (BQE) Expressway. I presume that the family’s moving out to Long Island was a reflection of my grandfather’s business success.

I’ll say this for the borough of Brooklyn. Its back because it’s now energized through gentrification and a return of major and minor league professional sports franchises. In addition, many talented people from many fields are drawn to Brooklyn for employment opportunities in information technology, financial services, hospitality, manufacturing, construction and health care as well as because of its cultural institutions including the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), a sports arena (Barclay’s Center), its beaches (Coney Island) and its wonderful parks such as the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and Prospect Park. So my family, my wife’s family and the Dodgers baseball team, all left Brooklyn to move elsewhere. But, this borough has made a comeback and it continues to thrive and grow.

Now back to the telling of a story involving a late afternoon supper at my grandparents’ home. On that particular day, I was sitting to the left of my grandfather. And like many patriarchs, my grandfather was sitting at the head of a long dining room table. My father was sitting to the right of my grandfather and directly across from me. Also at the table were my grandmother, her dear older sister (my great-aunt), my mother, my aunts, uncles and many cousins. My middle and younger brothers where somewhere in this home, but were not necessarily sitting at the table for this meal.

It was during this meal, I was sipping my Pepsi Cola, chatting with my cousins, enjoying myself and not eating very much of the food on my plate which my grandmother had cooked. It was at this point in time that my grandfather raised his voice and said unequivocally to me, “No more table-talk, enough soda and eat the food on your plate.”

I was aware of was that my grandfather’s comments were the final word. I did not try to question him and I remained quiet. I merely looked up sheepishly in the direction of my father.  My dad did not offer a word, a nod of his head nor even a shrug of his shoulders to show his support or encouragement. Perhaps, I was a little bit surprised by what transpired. One thing that I already knew and relearned that day was the value and necessity of always respecting your elders.  

When we returned home either that evening or shortly thereafter, I asked my father to explain to me, “What happened at the dinner table?”  So for starters, my father responded in a surprisingly emotional tone by explaining to me, “So, you think that I am difficult?! You think that it’s hard living in our home?!” My father continued his explanation by telling me, “Imagine how it was growing up as a child living in my parents’ home where my father’s rules and words always prevailed?” “I love(d) my father very much. However, when I was an adolescent, if I wanted comforting words or a hug, I would go to my mother or my aunt for consolation. Without their warmth and affection, it would have been a great challenge growing up in my parent’s home.” This discussion gives me a much better understanding of how my father grew up to be the man that he became as an adult and a parent.

(D.) More About Holidays and Sundays with My Family:

In summary, I grew up in a tight-knit family especially on my father’s side. Nearly every Sunday, we would drive to my grandparents after Sunday (Religious) School. Our religious education was in a temple or a synagogue and not in a church because we were (are) Jewish. In Sunday School, we learned to read, write and speak Hebrew as well as studied Jewish history, Torah (The Old Testament) and Jewish culture including celebrating the holidays through communal prayer, singing, dancing and meals.

After Religious School, Sunday brunch at my grandparent’s home reflected their Eastern European Jewish roots. Brunch would include orange juice, bagels or bialys with white fish or nova lox as well as cream cheese, scrambled eggs and coffee or tea. In addition to my grandparents, my great aunt, my parents, my siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins were almost always there. From the time of my birth in 1955 to the early 1970s, Sunday afternoon visits to spend time at my grandparents’ home was an ongoing family ritual.

After both of my grandparents passed away and throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s, I would see my aunts, uncles &/or cousins for dinner on the major Jewish holidays and for Thanksgiving. On occasions when my parents would go away with friends for a long weekend or a vacation, my siblings and I would stay together or separately with our aunts, uncles and cousins. It seems in retrospect that my uncles would have a friendly competition as to who could make the best scrambled eggs. I recall that both of my dad’s brothers would refer to the finished breakfast-product as eggs supreme.

When staying overnight with the family of my dad’s oldest brother, I sometimes had to work for my room and board. From time to time, there was yard work to be done and I was expected to help out. On more than one occasion, I seem to remember raking leaves and feeling tired when this task was completed. I never complained. I considered it a family obligation to help out.

In addition, my uncle was a war hero during WWII. However, like many veterans, he never spoke about his combat experiences to me and I never asked about his experience during the war. But, we both followed the news and had good conversations talking about American foreign policy as well as defense and intelligence issues as written by Drew Middleton of the New York Times. For me, our discussions were interesting, stimulating and rewarding.

(E.) About My Father, My Mother and My Siblings:

These days, most of the music I listen to when driving our Equinox SUV is “Siriously Sinatra” on XM radio where many of the songs are sung by Frank Sinatra. Also singing the same genre of music on this station are also Sinatra’s contemporaries, new disciples &/or pop stars who are reaching out to expand their repertoire by singing the great American song book. One day while I was listening to this program and the disc jockey (DJ) who is his famous daughter, Nancy Sinatra, she was giving listeners a better idea what an “old school” type of guy Frank was and what it was like growing-up in his home. In Frank’s personal and professional life, he viewed the concept of “time” differently than many other people. Therefore, in Frank’s way of thinking regarding any type of meeting, you were either exactly on time or you were late.

After I heard Nancy’s comments, some familiar feelings resonated inside me in an important way. I asked myself what does my father have in common with a show business celebrity? Sinatra was born in 1915 while my father was born in 1922. They both experienced living through the Great Depression in the 1930s, World War II in the 1940s and McCarthyism in the 1950s. They differed in many ways. Sinatra was an entertainment superstar while my dad never became famous but was a success in his career and reached a level of affluence in his life. In summary, Frank Sinatra and my father had one important value in common which was that time was a precious commodity. Therefore, always arriving not too early and not too late, just right on time was an important value which is something I readily did for many years without even thinking about it.

Secondly, my mother and father had a good marriage. They were married just short of fifty-seven years at the time of my father’s death nine years ago. From time to time, they argued. But they always (shortly) made up. My siblings and I had close relationships living under our parent’s roof. We argued and fought, verbally but never physically. We always resolved our differences. We knew that our parents were a unified team and they would speak privately before telling us their joint decision on an important matter. They did not favor one child over the other. And, we were smart enough to know that we could not play one parent off against the other to leverage some kind of advantage. So in that respect, we knew that in our parents we had met our match and we respected their authority.

We rarely talked specifically about G-d. But, we still believed in the existence of G-d and G-d’s 4,000-year relationship with the Jews which includes our Reform Jewish family. So adding it up, I can state that my parents loved each other, believed in our religious faith and our creator. In addition, my dad preferred paying for food and other needs in-cash. Credit cards when in use were paid in full on a monthly basis so not one penny of interest was ever assessed against my parent’s credit.

It remains a mystery how my mother was able to remain at home as a full-time mother and homemaker and my father was able to earn enough of a salary as the sole bread-winner in order to maintain and expand our home, save for a private college education for four children and put away a retirement nest egg? The economics of today must be much different today than it was in the 1950s, 60s and 70s? I have no idea how my parents were able to make ends meet? But in retrospect, I am thankful they did.

(F.) My Father Believed in Justice:

One important value my father stood for was justice. In 1945 after three years of service in the military in the United States Coast Guard during World War II, my dad was a twenty-three-year-old Petty Officer aboard a ship known as a Destroyer Escort in the frigid Aleutian Islands of Alaskan in the north Pacific Ocean. Just before this ship was to depart for China on its next mission, my father witnessed an incident involving a homicide onboard ship. What my father observed was a fight between a Native-American shipmate and another shipmate who was African-American. The fight took place in the sailor’s quarters. During the fight, the Black sailor was losing badly. It was at point during this altercation, a knife fight broke out and the Native-American sailor was killed. My father’s Black shipmate was unjustly given a prison sentence and my father who may have been the sole witness was not given an opportunity to testify on behalf of the surviving sailor to mitigate or exonerate his shipmate. The African-American sailor was given a dishonorable discharge and a prison sentence.

Fifty-two years later, belatedly my father was able to testify in a deposition before Hofstra University law professors and their students about this ship board homicide. My dad’s account of what transpired during this incident was presented to the Governor of Alaska as exculpatory evidence. The Governor was persuaded to award a pardon to this shipmate. I am uncertain if subsequently at the federal level, either the United States Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration &/or Homeland Security removed or reversed this sailor’s conviction, paid back forfeited veteran pension benefits and/or compensated this sailor for a miscarriage of justice? What I do know is that my father did a righteous thing to help override a terrible wrong and help ensure that a measure of justice was granted to a deserving fellow sailor and veteran.

(G.) My Father’s Painting & Gardening and My Observations:

One of my father’s hobbies was art. He liked to paint in oils. I remember as a small child he painted a portrait of a clown and mounted it in a picture frame in my bedroom. With my child-like imagination when I went to bed at night with the lights turned off in my room, I could swear that the picture moved in the dark. It did not speak to me. I never decided to try to speak to the painting. I don’t recall ever talking to my parents about this observation nor to my siblings. I was unafraid by what may have been going on in my mind or in my room which is a good thing. I suppose at that time that I viewed the oil painting as possessing the spirit of a friendly clown.

Performing landscaping chores was a task I performed year after year from the spring through the fall and eagerly accepted these tasks as an ongoing responsibility. I don’t recall if I ever asked to be paid for this task or did it gratis (free) as a family obligation?  I just remember that these tasks as something I did and I took ownership of these responsibilities. While I often cut the lawn and edged the curb along the sidewalk, my father tended to the gardening where he grew tomatoes, lettuce, carrots and cucumbers. Dad also took special care of the trees, scrubs and flower beds. My father used fertilizer, peat moss, mulch and water (of course) to enrich the soil and help all plants grow in a more robust manner.

(H.) Some of The Things We Did as A Family:

Prior to joining the United States Coast Guard when my father was a teenager growing up in Williamsburg, he joined the Sea Scouts which is similar to the Boy Scouts organization. During that time, dad became friends with five fellows close to his age who also became Sea Scouts from the neighborhood. They would all later became life-long best friends. Dad’s experience in the Sea Scouts and the Coast Guard were an influence throughout his marriage and as a parent in terms of his love of the ocean, swimming, fishing and boating. We often took trips by car to Jones Beach and Robert Moses State Parks. We all enjoyed swimming in the Atlantic Ocean as well as in our home-town’s Olympic sized community pool.

In the mid-sixties, my father bought a boat. It was a twenty-one-foot cabin cruiser named “The Whiplash”. The name was chosen because of a traffic accident my father was once involved-in where he injured his back and received compensation from an insurance company. Some of the money from this accident was used to help pay for the boat. Naming the boat as he did reflect his wry sense of humor. During the winter, he kept the boat out of water but within the boatyard’s indoor housing to protect the boat from damage to avoid inclement weather. In the spring, dad repainted the boat. During the winter months in preparation for the coming spring, my father would take refresher courses of boatmanship in terms of learning how to read oceanographic charts and the mechanics of power boating.  During the summers over a three-year timeframe, we would motor out to Zach’s Bay on the weekends which was on the bay side next to Jones Beach. This state park faced the ocean side. On some occasions, we would meet up with two my father’s former Sea Scout buddies and their families. Often, we would fish, swim off the boat, enjoy lunch and/or sun bathe.

Other times, we would stay on land but end up close to the water. We would fish off the dock of a cousin who owned a home along an inlet of the Great South Bay which is on the south shore of Nassau County not far from where we lived. The fish would be biting onto our bait during high tide. Frequently when the fish were running, we would catch a fish with an unusual name known as a “blow-fish”. Why they were called blow-fish is obvious. When you reeled them in, they would frequently inflate themselves when out of water. My father would cook them sometimes to make a fish chowder. My recollection is that when these fish were fried, they tasted like chicken. No joke.

Living on Long Island, we were always close by to the water. My father took advantage of this. Sunday was his turn to relieve my mother of a responsibility by making a family dinner. I remember many times, driving to the docks on the south shore of Nassau County where the boats would come in from a day’s catch. Prior to buying the fish, the fishermen would gut the fish which made it easier for customers to quickly cook the fish when they arrived home. For the seagulls overlooking this activity, the fish guts thrown into the water were a free lunch and they were eager to eat what remained. Once our purchase was complete and we returned home, my father would fry, broil or bake a variety of fish depending on what fish were running that day.

(I.) My Family at Work and My Observations as a Young Man:

My father had an unusual working environment. He shared an office where he practiced law. During the 1950s and 60s, my grandfather also worked in the same office running his commercial real estate operation. In addition to being a land lord, my grandfather still actively ran gas stations which also provided servicing and repairs to cars, buses and trucks. When my grandfather was short-staffed, my father filled-in working second-shift pumping gas in the late afternoon and early evening. As a small child, I thought that it was not unusual that an attorney would practice law during the day and then later from time-to-time, pump gas for a living at night.

At the same time my father and grandfather worked in the same office, my dad’s brothers (my uncles) also operated an insurance brokerage practice. After my grandfather passed away, the three brothers continued to work together in the same office in the 1970s and 80s. My father took-on the role of de-facto General Counsel and worked with his brothers as co-equals in managing the real estate interests originally operated by my deceased grandfather.

The brothers had an ongoing work-day routine. Every mid-morning, they would go out together for a mid-morning coffee break. For lunch, they would also go out as-a-group for a sandwich together to a diner called “Irving’s”. With a Yiddish accent and a little humor mixed-in, this diner became known throughout our family as “Oy-ving’s”. Waiting on my father and his brothers was this business’s owner and manager, Irving, who would also fill-in as a server. It’s my observation that the conversation between the three brothers and Irving was an ongoing inside joke. Even though I did not completely understand the back-and-forth conversation, it was enjoyable and funny listening to the dialogue and watching facial expressions and the brothers’ hand signals while trying to guess what was really going on especially when they placed orders directly with Irving for lunch.

 From time to time just to add a little variety, the brothers would travel a further distance to go out for a chili lunch to a restaurant called “The Texas Ranger.”  I did go when I had the opportunity because like my brothers, I had an open invitation to dine with my father and his brothers.

(J.) More About My Mother, My Siblings and My Childhood Neighborhood:

My mother graduated from NYU with an undergraduate degree in education. Mom never taught. Instead, she started immediately working as an executive secretary for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and shortly became a full-time wife, mother and homemaker. With my father, she helped provide a stable home environment.

Whenever my siblings or I had any kind of event, my mother would take us to an activity and do her utmost to stay with us unless if she was busy juggling other parenting tasks. As children, the kinds of activities she would attend included brownies, cub or girl scout meetings and serving as a den-mother as well as taking us to athletic events including little league, (baseball or basketball) games, birthday parties, hair-cuts, clothes or shoes shopping, doctor’s or dentist’s appointments, graduations, assemblies and parent-teacher conferences. Mom had (has) a beautiful voice and also sang as member and volunteer in the temple choir.

I can remember being trusted at the age of six or seven in 1961-62 to cross streets and walk home in the warmer weather from my first grade class immediately after school. My class was no further than four to five blocks or a quarter mile away from home. I remember this privilege distinctly because one day one of my sneakers accidently fell out of my book bag while walking home from school. My mother was not angry at me and patiently walked back to my first grade elementary school with me step-by-step. Unfortunately, we failed to find my missing sneaker. But, I did learn important lessons from this incident such as to be more careful while holding onto my possessions and to try to I remain calm when bad things happen unexpectedly.

 By the time I was in fifth grade, I often met with buddies at our local elementary school on Saturdays which was perhaps a half mile from home. We had no digital games to play in those days because they had not yet been invented.  Instead, we would play half-court basketball, touch football and sometimes soccer. It seemed that in those days we would play games from sun-up to nearly sun-down. In the town I grew up in, my parents possessed a level of comfort in our safety. So, rarely was it necessary for them to drive by the playground to check-up on my siblings and me at the elementary school. In those days, they knew we were safe.

When we were home to keep us occupied, my siblings and I would play the Monopoly board game. In particular, I also liked to play an American Civil War game with friends or by myself with little plastic soldiers representing both the blue and gray sides. Nearby by my imaginary battle field, I would build a house with “Lincoln Logs” in honor of our late President, Abraham Lincoln, who occupied the White House and led our nation during this consequential war.

With my older sister and her friends, I remember playing a board game called “The Barbie Game” which was based upon the doll and her activities. In this game, the winner got to go to the big dance known as the “Prom” and take a date to this event. I was a “boys-boy” and saw no harm in playing with girls in a game played mostly by girls. I had fun and enjoyed winning this game. Entertainment also included going to the movies. For feature films at a movie theatre, we would all see, The Beatles, in full length movies, “Help” and “Hard Day’s Night”, which were very popular in the mid-1960s.

 My brothers enjoyed watching with me short films on television (TV) of the comedy teams known as “The Three Stooges” and “Laurel and Hardy” and full-length movies featuring Abbott and Costello”. We would also watch reruns of a TV situation comedy (a sit-com) called, “Leave It to Beaver”. This comedy was about a typical American Family with a stay at home mom parenting two energetic children and a father who worked close-by in a white collar job. In addition, the father arrived home weekdays for dinner, smoked a pipe, read his evening newspaper and helped solve whatever minor issues needed to be resolved between his children in a thirty-minute weekly episode especially involving the youngest child nick-named “The Beaver”.  Along with my siblings, I identified with this TV show because it reflected the type of family and life style we lived in our suburban home and community. It was a show about an average everyday people who did normal things which we could relate to.

In the 1960s and 1970s well before the digital-age, a friend came to our home “to play” with us or we came to his or her house especially when the weather got colder. There always were other kids in the neighborhood for my siblings and me to have fun games with. When not in a school-yard, we would sometimes play in one kids family’s backyard. On the quieter streets, we would sometimes play whiffle ball which is a game a lot like baseball. Our choice of location seemed in those days to be a safe place to play this game. We were aware of our surroundings. But, it seemed that we were never worried about oncoming cars. Especially when I was in fifth and sixth grade, playing this game seemed like an idyllic fun and stress-free-time to be an adolescent.

(K.) You Can’t Go Home Again or Maybe You Can?

When this chapter was written, the time entire 8,100-plus word blog was already completed. It’s now much longer and hopefully more interesting? I decided to add to this essay because I was thinking nostalgically about my past and the ways of how a road-trip experience fell short of expectations and how in other ways I can still relive the past in my imagination.

Before I sat down to write this chapter, I said to myself, “You can’t go home again.” Then, I asked myself as I thought out-loud, “I’m not the first person to speak this phrase. Who did?” Knowing that I am never a google-away from eternal wisdom, I looked it up. This phrase was made popular in the title of a novel, “You Can’t Go Home Again”, written by Thomas Wolfe whose book was published posthumously in 1940. This phrase serves as a metaphor to mean that the most vivid and important memories of past events in your life are almost always better than your best attempts to relive them. Now that I have your attention, let me share the following story with you:

I lived in Queens Country for the past thirty years which is an outer borough of New York City (NYC). For the first twenty-six years of my life, my education, work experiences, family and social activities centered around my life in the suburbs of Nassau County. At the time of my adventure, it was a rainy overcast fall day on a Sunday. If you are a sports fan, it was professional football season. I was off for the day from my employer (of course).  I did not have any tasks to perform and my wife, an educator, was going on stay home to work on lesson plans. We had no other plans and I was given the okay to go on a road-trip, solo, down memory lane.

My first stop was to my childhood-hometown on the south shore of Nassau County. For some reason never explained to me, most people seem to feel that Nassau Country is the start of Long Island. Brooklyn and Queens are attached to Nassau. Suffolk County is also attached to Nassau. But Brooklyn and Queens are generally considered by many people to be part of New York City (NYC) and not Long Island while Nassau and Suffolk are jointly referred to as exclusively Long Island. If you simply were to look at a map where all four counties are connected, you would most likely come to a different conclusion than the suburbanites. Go figure?

 It has been thirty-five years since I left home to move to NYC (Manhattan). I was twenty-six at the time. On the day of my journey, it took me about an hour to drive from my home in Queens to the town I grew up-in in Nassau County. Once I reached my destination, the first thing I noticed was that the trees had grown quite a bit. Although I had returned back to what was once my parents’ home from time-to-time over many years, this was the first time that I really noticed the change.

The second thing I noticed about my boyhood home was that it now had a six-foot-high white fence around the backyard. From my parked car across the street, I could tell that the fence was not made of wood, but instead of some kind of synthetic fiber. So, it would not be easy to see the backyard and the lawn which I had mowed or raked many hundreds of times. After a bit of thought, I finally decided that it was not worth trying to find a way to view my old backyard.  My only thought of caution was that the new owners might not appreciate uninvited guests or trespassers walking on their property however briefly.

The third thing I noticed was that perhaps one in ten homes had added a second story since I moved away. Also, I noticed that in the driveways of many homes were two brand new shiny sport utility vehicles (SUVs) or mini-vans. This observation upon further reflection shouldn’t have been a big surprise. In my adolescence and teenage years, there were no such things as SUV’s and mini-vans were not widely used. Instead when I was growing up, people drove around in station wagons with an ersatz wooden panel which was called a woody. Among my siblings and I, we referred to this style of station wagon as a woodchuck.

I am aware of the high cost of property taxes and the expenses of living in general in the suburbs. When I later asked several people, “How can people afford to live there?”, I was told that many people sublet a portion of their home by renting out the second floor or the basement. In addition, I was told that many of the two stylish cars on each driveway may have been pre-owned or leased cars and were not complete (full) purchases, thus saving home owners in having to pay up-front money. In reflecting about the economics of living in the suburbs, all I can say is, “G-d bless the homeowners of Long Island who can meet this challenge and win.”

In addition, next on my agenda for this rainy Sunday, I drove past my former house of worship where I was Bar Mitzvah when I was thirteen as per Jewish custom. The name of this temple had changed because of its merger with another synagogue from another close-by town. Thus, the demographics and economics of the changing times required an adjustment by some members in the location of religious observation in this south Nassau County suburban community.

The last thing I noticed before leaving my home town was that the basketball court at my elementary school where I had spent so much time in fifth and sixth grades after school or on Saturday afternoons no longer had baskets. So, playing outdoor basketball at this school in nice weather was no longer an option. It was now a parking lot. The only thing which came to my mind during this visit was my thinking of the words of pop singer Join Mitchell who once sang, “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

Was this lyric relevant? To me this change meant something very important in a symbolic way. During the good-old days while in elementary school especially from 1965 to 1967, this new parking lot was my Saturday afternoon paradise by hanging out with great friends and playing many hours of basketball and on the lawn next to the basketball court for a nearby touch-football game. Now this playground was only a memory to me.

Next stop on my nostalgia tour was a twenty-minute drive northward to the office where, my family including my paternal grandfather, father and uncles all worked at some point in time during a forty or more years’ timeframe from the 1950’s to the 1990’s to earn a living. When I first arrived, I looked across the street for any sign of the shopping mall where Irving’s diner was once located. As stated earlier in this blog, “Oy-ving’s” was the diner the male working side of my father’s family gathered during most week days for coffee breaks and lunch near the office.  What I first saw was a huge parking lot. At the extreme end was a mega-super market. It was my observation that even a world class archeologist would be challenged to unearth any signs of a previous commercial restaurant establishment in the mid to late 1900’s.

I then approached the entrance of dad’s former office, the first thing that I noticed was that this establishment was now a sports bar and had a sign facing outward towards the street which stated that there was a limited seating capacity in accordance with Nassau County law. It must have been ten o’clock on a Sunday morning. The first football fans had not yet arrived for the pre-game pro football shows hosted by former players, sports writers and on-air broadcast personalities. When I looked through the window, this bar looked dingy. In fairness to the owners, my best guess is that if I had stuck around an hour or two to buy a beer, watch a game and possibly run-into a memory of my past, the place would have seemed much livelier with the lights turned on, the flat screen TVs lit-up and at full volume at the first game time kickoff. Or perhaps initially, the TV would be toned own until the start of the game with Compact Disks (CDs), Spotify, Pandora or XM radio music piped in playing Rap, Hip Hop, R & B, Country, Pop or Rock’n Roll music?

Thus, the reality of my observation revealed what I should have known already before I started my journey. My grandfather, father and uncles had long passed on. The only thing this place now had in common with my memories was that it existed on the same location and address. But that’s okay, I can live with the change. Shortly, I will tell you why.

I next headed northward to my former college on the north shore of Nassau County. I was a government major at college studying political science and public administration at the undergraduate and graduate levels between 1974 and 1980. During my visit, I tried to visit Humanities Hall where political science and other social science undergraduate majors met with their professors and academic advisors. It was the weekend and the building was closed (of course). As I walked away, I reconciled myself to the fact that my favorite professor who I had a twenty-five-year relationship with post-graduation had passed away a decade ago. Looking back, I remember that I would regularly visit my professor once a year. Frequently, he would give me books to read, take me out to lunch and most importantly lend me his ear and give me sage advice which I still carry with me in my memories. So, it was not a great loss that I could not walk around this locked building on a quiet Sunday.

In my next visit while still on-campus, I succeeded in entering the building next-door where my graduate professors and advisors met in a building named Hoxie Hall. Still working in this building was one of my former professors. When I passed by his locked and unoccupied office, I could see his name and title on a sign posted on his office door. When I had attended graduate school, he was Dean of the College of Management and had now changed administrative positions taking on slightly less responsibility. My former professor was now Chair of the Public and Health Care Administration Department. While still performing teaching and administrative tasks at my old school, my teacher was (is) an entrepreneur of sorts. He has also maintained a municipal government lobbying firm in Manhattan and sometimes travels to Washington, DC, where he has worked on Senate Investigative Committees which helps him make connections with elected officials.

My last visit was to the Student Union which includes a room formerly known as the Ratskeller which is a German word for pub. Back in-the-day when I was an undergrad, the drinking age was eighteen years of age or older. Now, the age to buy and drink alcohol has been increased to residents who are at minimum twenty-one years old. When I visited the campus, there it was no longer a pub in business because most underclass students would be ineligible to legally buy a drink. It was now a lecture hall. My initial thought was that it was unfortunate that society had evolved over two generations to a point where an undergraduate student couldn’t buy a beer on campus.

When I lived on campus, my most vivid Ratskeller memories relate to a time when I was a senior at school and while working for this institution’s admissions office, I would often drop by this pub after giving a campus tour and after the orientation treated a prospective student to a drink in order to talk about campus life. I don’t recall whether I bought my guest a cola or a beer? I do remember that we would have just one drink and generally had good conversations. Now, I suppose with the change in the laws that underclassmen need to reach out to juniors, seniors and graduate students as beer procurement agents?

In some ways, you can’t go home again because if you do, you would find that the place as it existed in your memory has changed. If you happen to meet with some of the same people you knew back-in-the-day, you might find that sometimes their mind-set in the present was different than when, back-in-the-day, those good nostalgia memories took place.

In other ways, you can go home again. All you need to do in a very simple way is to sit or lay down in a comfortable place in your home and perhaps turn on some soft music and start thinking about a memorable day which was important in your life. In your imagination, your memories of the people, places, events, conversations, laughter and good feelings still resonate inside you. In addition, reliving days when you were challenged or fell short, it’s possible to turn a negative into a positive by assessing the important life lessons learned.

In addition, it’s possible to “go home again” when meeting with family, friends, co-workers, former classmates and others at dinners, parties, reunions, graduations, chance encounters and luncheons. During these meetings, the conversation will be about the past, present and the future. For example, many of us have children who are still in college. Also, some of our older youngsters may have recently graduated, a few of our kids are now adults who are getting married &/or now have children of their own. The latter situation would make some of us new grandparents. To borrow a phrase from the Disney musical, “the circle of life” continues.

Also, some of us are thinking of retiring at some time in the future. When in the course of a conversation with the proliferation of smart phones, many people can bring their visual memories with them to reunions in the form of hardcopy pictures or digital photos including selfies, group or family events and videos. What’s interesting is that different people will have a different memory of the same event. Today, we are able to keep in touch with each other more readily and quickly through electronic devices including personal computers, lap tops, work stations, I-pads, tablets, I-watches and most prominently smart phones through emails, texts, social media (Linked-In and Facebook), phone calls, skype/or and face-time.

In summary, it’s all connected because you can at times go home again by reliving your memories and through keeping in touch with people from your past. In addition, the values which you hold near and dear can help give your life structure to remember what memories resonate most brightly inside you and help define you. Embracing these occasions helps enhance happiness and puts a little spring in your step as you live your life one day at a time.

(L.) Moving Forward to Adulthood in the World of Work While Using Talk Therapy to Look Back at My Childhood and My Parents Especially My Father:

I went through a period of time in my late middle age, my late 50s, where an influential co-worker who I previously considered an ally, turned against me. It felt like the kind of problem or incidents which I faced in “high school” or earlier in my childhood. But, it was real challenge and caused a great deal of anxiety inside me. There was a meanness and anger inside of my new adversary’s voice. This co-worker was reporting to the same person as I did, a senior manager, who was approving and signing my weekly electronic time-card and writing my annual work performance reviews. My new adversary continually threatened to report me to my immediate supervisor and tell of my incompetence. I felt that these accusations were both groundless and yet still very disturbing.

At some point, I decided that I needed a change of perspective and a new strategy was required in order to manage this troublesome situation which is why I went back into therapy after a three-to four-month hiatus. Therefore, I decided to resume talking to my psychotherapist on a weekly basis. I told my therapist that I felt that my co-worker was trying to undermine my self-confidence or as we would say when I was an adolescent, this person wanted to hurt “my feelings”.

In particular, I felt that the tone of these meetings was particularly striking. As I recall when I returned to work after extended medical leave in both March and September of 2014, I found my co-worker’s attacks to be unwarranted, without merit and vindictive. After one acrimonious meeting on my first day back, I impulsively decided that I had had enough of the verbal abuse.

While my co-worker was in mid-sentence and attempting to release another verbal barrage, I simply got up and left the room without excusing myself. I said nothing and offered no non-verbal clues as to what was going on in my mind. It was a rather unique meeting because I did something which I had never acted out before nor experienced in all my many years employed in the world-of-work. Therefore, I decided to no longer be subject to this abuse.  My worker had gravitas (weight or influence) in the organization I belonged to. However, because of her behavior, I felt that on this particular day she did not deserve my respect.  Also I decided that arguing with her would escalate the verbal exchange in her office. Thus by withdrawing at least temporarily, it helped me defuse the situation.

From my discussion of the verbal beatings I was receiving from a co-worker in a private office and in an enclosed space at work, my therapist and I would talk about my relationship with my father where at times as a child I engaged in what might be considered to be misbehavior. I remember a great many things from my happy childhood. But, I can never remember doing anything warranting a spanking. The only thing I ever can remember doing what might be considered bad was accidently shaking a can of carbonated grape soda which erupted out of the can and sprayed onto the kitchen ceiling. I suppose that a little 409, Fantastic, bleach or water-based paint removed the stain? On this occasion, I don’t recall being spanked for this accident. I was just embarrassed and unhappy that I could not clean up the mess-up before having to tell my parents.

When I was spanked as a child, it was in a bathroom just off the master bedroom where my parents slept. My father would spank me on my bare bottom with either his hand, a wire brush or a belt. It’s my recollection that my mother knew that this punishment was being carried out while she was not present. I do not recall how many times on average my father would hit me nor how often I was punished? I recall that this punishment occurred between the ages of five and ten years old. I suppose that at the time I was going through spankings, I presumed that all kids in my neighborhood had to deal with this type of situation and were engaged in a “rite of passage”.  However, I do recall that it was painful act and I probably thought at the time that it was unfair.

The purpose of this section in not to disparage my father. It’s just that through therapy, my counselor helped me connect the dots between my receiving physical punishment as a child and what transpired with the painful verbal abuse I received as a late middle age adult at work.  Once I understood the genesis of where my fears came from, it was helpful to me to better understand my co-worker who had (has) what I believe to be unresolved anger feelings related to her relationship with her father. I believe that her father never favored my co-worker because of her lifestyle, sexual orientation, and because she was (is) a female and her father favored her brother. I know about her past because of the stories she told me when we were on much better terms.

This understanding help liberate me. I stopped blaming myself, felt calmer at work and handled more withering attacks from my co-worker with a sense of grace. At one point shortly before my co-worker stopped working in the same location we both were employed and at the conclusion of a difficult conversation, my co-worker said to me, “The smile on your face is really pissing me off.” All that I could say when I departed from the elevator was, “Have a nice day.” And, she saw that an even bigger smile had unexpectedly emerged from my face.

So a challenging work related stressful situation was resolved. I knew that once I had this new information through talk therapy, my perspective changed. When I was being yelled at by her, I thought and felt that it was not really the voice of my co-worker. Perhaps, it was the angry voice of her father which she was acting out? The next steps for me were to channel my Inner-Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., in thinking about non-violent passive resistance. I also did a quick Google search by reading about Jesus Christ’s sermon on the mount about the need to turn the other cheek when faced with an adversary. I found all of this new way of thinking and feeling to be very helpful to me.

My co-worker and adversary had the potential to be a charismatic leader. However, by not coming to terms with the source of her own anger, she was unable repair the damage she caused by alienating many of the people within the building where we all worked. A year and a half ago, my co-worker had a serious health set-back, took early retirement and faded into the background. It’s unfortunate that we never had an opportunity to see a happy ending involving my co-worker at the office. I wish her inner-peace and happiness at this stage of her life.

(M.) In Conclusion (Part I):

Looking back three years ago, I thought that I had resolved any remaining issues with my long departed father. In further conversations with my therapist, my exploration to determine the source of my troubled feelings was successful. By making perhaps a final peace with my dad, I have done a lot of thinking and was able to identify the values which are a reflection of the home I was raised in by my mother and father. Both of my parents deserve credit for making me the man that I am today. In addition, I try not to underestimate my mother’s role in my developing into adulthood even though I spent much more time in this essay writing about my father. It’s just that thoughts and feelings about my father often come first because of my gender and because it is a fact and a feeling that he is the most prominent male role model in my life. It’s an influence I try not to underestimate. If I were to stay overtly or subconsciously angry at my father, I seem to feel that over the long term this anger could have a corrosive effect on the quality of my life. If not identified, I could easily misdirect anger at people who I perceive or misperceive hurt my feelings and eventually redirect that anger back at myself without understanding it.

The reason I studied government (political science and public administration) in college and forged a career in municipal government stems from the fact that my paternal grandparents were New Deal, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), Democrats as were my parents who transitioned on to Adlai Stevenson, John F. Kennedy (JFK) and Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) in the 1950s and 1960s.

It sounds idealistic. But my motivation and choice of my career stems from my desire to help make the world a better place. And sometimes when I think about it, I did make a difference at least indirectly. For example, in my career, I have been able draft a series of contractual documents which lead to the computerization of my agency’s specialty clinics and facilitated Medicare credentialing on-behalf of two major in-house bureaus which ensured reimbursement for millions of dollars of services rendered to clients by my agency’s health care providers. In addition, I worked to ensure my agency’s compliance with federal privacy law and chaired &/or sat-in-on committees as a voting member to hire outside accounting firms, collection agencies and medical billing companies. In addition, my decision to join a political party and my overall philosophy at looking at the world about me is in many respects is (was) influenced because of the home that I was raised in.

My parents were born during the time of the Great Depression. Fortunately, my parents grew up in a middle class home. In my parent’s household, fiscal prudence and thrift were strong values. We (my wife and I) almost always pay the credit cards completely to attain a zero balance due once every two weeks on average. In addition, we withhold as much as we can in our 401K retirement accounts and continue to build on our government pensions and pay into the social security retirement system (of course). So, I am hopeful that we should be in good financial shape when we retire. My parents influence and values which guide us in managing our lives and our money are still with us.

I embrace the religious faith which I was born into which is Judaism. But, I also believe that there are different ways of finding G-d. In addition, I have a strong sense of ethnic or cultural pride in being a Jew. I have friendships with people who are both Jewish and Gentile. My non-Jewish friends are both Christians and Muslims. I have no problem if I am out to dinner with a Christian friend who wishes to say “grace” in blessing the food on the table and the friendships which bring us together in the name of Jesus Christ.

 In addition, I am comfortable if a Muslim friend wishes to talk about his or her faith and/or feelings generated through the disruptive rhetoric of the current Presidential campaigns, I am available to listen. Being a Jew and the member of a people who have been discriminated against, helps me remain open to the challenges and troubles of people who are from different backgrounds than me. Thus, listening carefully and having Rakmones (empathy) is essential.

(N.) In Conclusion (Part II):

More about my parents. Did they argue? Yes. From time-to-time, they argued. And perhaps except when I was a small child, it never bothered me. Their arguments did not last long. I don’t even recall over what they argued about. Most likely it had something to do with fatigue for simply doing their jobs to earn a living and/or parenting. It’s logical to think that sometimes people are tired and simply lose their temper.

After dating both Jewish and non-Jewish women in my mid to late twenties, I decided at one point to date only Jewish women. This decision did not come easily. It was a matter which I wrestled with in my mind for some time. However, at some point in time, I suppose I looked at my parents and decided if I marry within my religious faith to a woman who shared the same level of observance and cultural values, there would be a high probability that I would have a successful marriage. Also I suppose that a secondary reason for making this decision stems from the fact that after six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, I felt an obligation to help increase our numbers.

My parents wanted a large family and had four children. We’ve had one child in twenty-nine years of marriage. We’ve gone back and forth about expanding our nuclear family. However, we have remained the parents of one child. It’s never boring. At times, its felt like we were on an emotional roller coaster ride. Now, our son is living independently with his longtime girlfriend. They both live, work full time and attend college in another state.

As far as parenting, I’m starting to feel more relaxed and sometimes, I can exhale which is another way of stating that I don’t worry as much. Perhaps in the words of Henry Ward Beecher we have helped give our son “roots and wings”? Only time will tell.

My son no longer dresses like a Williamsburg (Brooklyn) hipster. He is much closer to a Gentleman’s Quarterly (GQ) kind-of-guy in terms of his Joseph A. Bank corporate suit & shirt tie ensemble and performs white collar related work. It’s at these times, I am reminded of what my mother would say to my father when something went well with one of my siblings or me. Mom would say to dad with her wry sense of humor, “We did something right.” Then we would follow-up and say, “What did we do right?” When I would hear that, I would simply chuckle.

Now as a parent, I have those same kind of moments. In addition, I’ve changed my approach and most of the time I no longer give speeches. When my son calls telling me about a situation, I listen carefully and focus on asking questions. I try to keep it short and before we conclude this conversation, I ask him to tell me, “What are your next steps?” After that, I often ask him, “Was I of any help to you?” My final word to my son is frequently something like, “You are your own best resource of figuring what to do. Go for it.”

(O.) Final Thoughts:

One of my brothers sometimes tells me that he misses my father all the time. I think that we have the same love for our father. However perhaps our approach differs?  For me since he has passed away, my father has never left me. When I look in the mirror, I see his face. When I speak, my voice sounds a little like dad. When I think through a problem, my approach does not differ greatly from my what he might have done. When I get angry and think of using a four letter word, I try to find a word in its place which softens my anger, sometimes shows some humor and gets my emotional intelligence back-on-track. Perhaps, dad might do the same?

When I feel insecure about my work in municipal government administration and finance, I recall that my father would openly admit to me that he felt challenged in his private law practice when a client with a new kind of problem which he had never faced before stepped into his office. Instead of referring a client to another more experienced lawyer, my father was able to fight his fears to handle a case, work hard at his job and be a fine attorney. When he was alive and I was a young adult, I would approach him with a problem sometimes. It was at these times, my father would say, “I’ve told you everything I know. Think back on our previous conversations and you will figure it out.” I never walked away disappointed. I would simply say, “Thanks dad.” The good news is that I almost always figured it out!

I’m a product of the environment I was raised in. I think of myself as an old school kind of guy. If not for my parents, it’s very possible that the entire trajectory of my life might be different? The choice of my career and how I view politics, religion, money, parenting and marriage is a reflection of my mother and father’s values.

I think of these values as a gift my parents left me. In subtle way, I try to pass it onto my son. By-the-way, I am far from a perfect person. It’s a day-to-day process and a challenge. I think of myself as work-in-progress. I’m continually trying to find the right balance between confidence and humility.

Our son is our best chance at immortality. If he accepts the values which his mother and I have passed onto him, then perhaps with his future children he will pay it forward? From time-to-time, life presents challenges. I can imagine that my son when faced with a difficult decision may think of things his parents might say or do in carrying on the business of his professional and personal life? When I reflect on what he said about us (his parents) during his Bar Mitzvah speech when he was thirteen and his toast at my sixtieth birthday party last year at the age of twenty-one, I walk away feeling confident that my son is now on the right track.