Frank Versagi's Editorial Snippets
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Frank Versagi's Editorial Snippets |
03 May 06
But I see the Spanish translation of our National Anthem as a step toward accepting what America is; I expect that those Latinos who choose to sing the anthem in Spanish will sooner rather than later learn it in English. One small step . . .
10 May 06
Snippet 2: "In a democracy, political leadership sometimes means telling voters they are wrong, . . . Too many politicians have flunked this test." I don't remember from where I'm plagiarizing this.
Snippet 3: If it is truly "the West" and not just the U.S. which is worried about Iran's acquiring nukes, why don't the French or the Germans or the Italians make whatever military strikes they consider necessary? Could their reluctance have anything to do with the fact that Europe imports a greater percentage of its oil than does the U.S.?
17 May 2006
I do not fear President Bush's telephone data mining program.
I am glad, though, that ACLU-type activists oppose it.
Bush won't let us forget that the nation is at war (
which really began before Nine/Eleven).Both efforts are needed.
24 May 2006
"Don't take it personally."
One of my first experiences with not letting a momentary irritation flare into a
serious disagreement occurred during World War II, when I was having dinner in
that part of Northern Italy which had been part of Austria. Practicing my
halting German, I ordered
I bristled, momentarily assuming my young manhood was being questioned, until the waitress explained that milk was in short supply and was being set aside for children.
So it should be in civic and political debate, even heated debate. Civic activists, elected and appointed officials, essayists and commentators serve themselves and their constituents and audiences best by focusing on the issue and not taking disagreement personally.
Sometimes hard to do, but always helpful.
31 May 2006
The lighter touch--
A Quaker heard an intruder in his house. He came out of his bedroom, shotgun in
hand, aimed at the intruder, and said:
"Thou knowest I am a Quaker and therefore nonviolent. Thou knowest that I would
in no way hurt my fellowman.
But, sir, thou standest where I am about to shoot."
07 June 2006
Readers who are active in civic, church, or club circles too frequently have
to endure committee or board members who seem compelled to speak at great length
whether or not they have something substantive to say. A parallel experience is
the volunteer who finds it necessary to re-state what two or three colleagues
have already said.
In one discussion about how irritating this phenomenon is during meetings of governmental bodies, I called such behavior "posturing," but one of my interlocutors said it better: "Everything has been said -- but not everybody has said it!"
14 June 2006
The Party of Government is at it again.
Unlike land lines, cell phones are not a utility, so they don't fall under the Michigan Public Services Commission. That bothers Democrats, like Rep. Gilda Jacobs, who want the commission to regulate transfer fees, areas of coverage, billing practices, whatever, to "protect" cell phone users.
Having a cell phone or changing vendor is a choice, not a necessity. Private individuals are perfectly capable of dealing with private companies without government "help."
21 June 2006
I'm beginning to wonder whether all the concern about pedestrians in crosswalks
is misplaced.
Stand on a Main Street sidewalk between two intersections. You'll see jaywalkers safely threading their way across four lanes of traffic, while those few pedestrians who choose to use the crosswalk repeatedly risk being hit by a vehicle they can't see coming along the curb lane.
What say we delete all crosswalks and stop issuing tickets for jaywalking?
28 June 2006
DeVos versus Granholm
Seems like a fair fight.
05 July 2006
Among the inconveniences of always trying to judge issues on their merits, rather than by impulsive predisposition, is that one occasionally comes down on the "wrong" side. For example, in the 7-year 1950s English war against natives in Kenya, I probably would have become a Mau Mau "terrorist."
12 July 2006
[not saved: dealt with public figures drinking out of water bottles]
19 July 2006
Learning from the School District:
Thirty or forty residents competently expressed their thoughts, and feelings,
during a meeting of the school/city liaison committee reported below .
Having sat through the 2-hour session, I can't help but suggest that City Hall would be wise to consider revising its 5-minute limit for Public Comment and adopting the 3-minute limit used by the School Board.
26 July 2006
Minor Matters Department - 2:
An elected official replied to my complaint about watching people at the
commission table drinking from bottles. For health reasons, this official drinks
only bottled water and wouldn't think of drinking from a polystyrene cup.
To which my sensitive, snobbish soul says: Pour from your plastic water bottle into a china or ceramic coffee cup. Better yet, take a 10-minute break after 90-100 minutes, so you won't have to eat or drink while conducting business. We WWII vets like to brag that we fought and won a war taking a 10-minute break every hour that we weren't in a firefight. Geesh.
02 August 2006
Vigilantes with an ACLU mindset continue to attempt to prevent students from mentioning God or their religious faith during class or at graduation ceremonies. Separation of Church & State, you know.
Let's see, now: Doesn't "diversity" call for inclusion, not exclusion? Isn't it "cool" to permit students to choose their individual words and references, without in the slightest way compromising the school's religious neutrality?
Government remains separate when it merely acknowledges all religions and so long as it makes no attempt to establish a state church.
09 August 2006
For the same reason, I seek out two or three Black-focused comic strips like The Boondocks, which equally zap whitey and street blacks with satirical ferocity.
Comic strip or columnist/pundit, sample them all.
16 August 2006
Slogans, like sound bites, can be misleadingly simplistic whether or not one
agrees with them. That thought comes to mind when I see the revival of "No new
nukes" in reaction to increasing acknowledgement that nuclear power generation
is an inevitable part of the world's future. And there is renewed concern about
whales.
That caused me to remember the Sixties and Seventies when we rednecks countered two popular slogans, "No nukes!" and "Save the whales!", with our equally simplistic "Nuke the whales!"
23 August 2006
Don't mention their name.
Incumbents, at whatever elected level, have the advantage of getting their name
in the paper whether they are really accomplishing anything or just showing up
somewhere. Opponents too often react with angry letters or phone calls to the
media to complain about the nonproductive posturing of those politicians.
Whichever their party, politicians, like entertainment celebrities, seek name recognition above all else and don't care what is published about them "as long as they spell my name right." Opponents should either (a) refrain from commenting in the media or (b) refer to the non-event without actually naming the culprit. Something like, "Once again our state representative has . . . ."
That drives them crazy.
30 Aug 2006
It is instructive to read the range of opinion about world affairs in publications from other countries. Concerning the Mideast Mess, for example, reach out to the Jerusalem Post or Haaretz, for the Israeli perspective and to the BBC for its Arab-leaning coverage. And most days I make it a point to read one or two different American liberal and conservative columnists -- just to stay in touch.
06 Sep 06
As long as all of us -- Democrat, Green, Independent, Libertarian,
Republican, Socialist -- are inserting a "fear factor" into our political
dialogue, consider this worst case scenario:
If the Democrats capture the Presidency and the Congress, they will weaken our defensive power, a la Carter. . . .Terrorists will mount so many successful attacks against us and our allies that our weakened Military will conduct a coup to free itself from flabby civilian control. . . . To survive, the United States will morph from a democracy into a military dictatorship, a la Pakistan or like old Peron's Argentina.
Scary, what?.
13 Sep 06
We won't win the war on terror, but neither will the terrorists.
Instead, the world situation will settle down to about what it is now: attacks
in Europe, Africa, Asia --probably here, too -- but it's unlikely that we will
see any catastrophic assault. In the meantime, terrorist groups occasionally
will release recruiting and fund-raising videos from their caves.
We're safer than we were but will never be 100% safe.
Our amorphous enemy has declared a jihad against us, and I believe them, So the
West and -- for nationalistic as well as religious reasons -- countries in Asia,
Latin America, and Africa will continue to experience lesser-than-catastrophic
tragedies for decades, even as we continue to flush them out and destroy them.
We are at war.
20 Sep 06
Stamp Collecting, anyone?
In my files I have found a handful of 1964-ish stamped envelopes, some with an
explanatory letter -- including a "First day cancellation," whatever
that signifies. And, there is a primer pamphlet on stamp collecting, "Your
Introduction to a Fascinating Hobby." Apparently I was interested in stamp
collecting back then, for these to have been forwarded to me.
Anyone out there who would like these items, just reach out and they're yours.
27 Sep 06
The current rash of political recalls and the increasing willingness of citizens
publicly to contest the decisions of elected and appointed officials and of
volunteer committees and boards and commissions are one result of offering
general education to the masses, as we mostly do in the West. Whether that
education is great or mediocre, it has destroyed "the old-fashioned notions of
deference" toward authority of any kind, in the words of one commentator
on matters cultural.
It beats rioting in the streets, though.
04 Oct 06
Unverified anecdotal reports have it that, decades ago, very quiet vacuum
cleaners were invented but were never marketed because focus groups decided the
units weren't noisy enough to do a good job of cleaning.
That old story comes to mind when reading current reports of electric motors for cars which are so quiet that car-makers intend to include in the vehicle software which generates "a variety of engine roars."
11 Oct 06
God?
How dare he!
18 Oct 06
Even well-informed voters now and then find themselves undecided about an issue or a candidate, especially a candidate for an obscure office. It is ironically helpful to learn the preferences of entities with whom one usually disagrees, then to vote oppositely. An undecided conservative, for example, will vote no if the AFL-CIO or the Detroit Free Press advises voting yes. And an undecided liberal knows what to do after learning what the Heritage Foundation or the Detroit News has to say. It is in that spirit -- knowing that VersagiVoice readers will agree and disagree -- that I offer my thoughts about candidates or issues.
25 Oct 06
The United States of America and leading nations in Europe are working zealously
to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
But the U.S. ignores and obstructs the Arab-sponsored attempt to declare the entire Mideast a nuclear-free zone -- because that would mean forcing Israel to destroy its nuclear capability.
How can we expect to be considered an honest broker in the Mideast?
01Nov 06
Quietly, John and Bill Sullivan consistently contribute time and money to civic and charitable causes. Bill also operates Dos Manos, importer of Latin American art works, serving national clients from his downtown Royal Oak location. As an example of the Sullivans' personal and corporate generosity, both the funeral home and Dos Manos purchased ads in the program book for the 67th Annual Dinner of the
Royal Oak Historical Society.08 Nov 06
Observing Royal Oak cops in their favorite restaurants, on patrol, at the Police Station, or on call, I've seen only a handful of roly-polies,.Still, I'm not sure I would try to outrun them!
22 Nov 06
§ Historic preservation controversies seem to have dominated local
affairs during the several days I have been out of action, and VersagiVoice was
not updated last week. Elsewhere on this page I pick up and comment about those
controversies.
§ My side won the latest football "game of the century." It was exciting that each team scored almost every time it received the ball, but as a management consultant my recommendation is that both defensive coaches be immediately fired.
29 Nov 06
Mini-snippets
High-rise Condos
Environmentalists "seem to regard people as a kind of blot on the landscape."
Petty Politics is not exclusively an American phenomenon. In Enlightened Sweden one female minister was forced to resign because she had improperly registered her nanny; another had to quit because she had not paid her television license.
06 Dec 06
ACLU OF MICHIGAN
Executive Director Kary Moss, Esq.
60 West Hancock
Detroit, MI 48201-1324
or call them at 313.578.6800 . . . or fax them at 313.578.6811
13 Dec 06
We drinkers, even those of us too puritanical to frequent Hooters, continue to
chuckle and gloat over the continuing studies which indicate how healthful red
wine is. The latest news is that it increases longevity in "every life form
we've tested," including mice.
It is hard for us not to puzzle about the alcohol-phobia of those who agonize excessively over liquor licenses. The latest news on this is Troy's unwillingness to permit Hooters to transfer its existing license to another site. The present location, there for over nine years, is near a residential area; the new location will be in a commercial district. One argument is that Hooters has had three "liquor license violations" in the past nine years. No word on how that compares with other license holders in Troy. We drinkers, a suspicious lot, suspect it's a bit like so many "OSHA citations" -- for failing to post notices or some such. Even if the violations were serious: 3 in 9 years? That's one-third of a violation per year. Ain't that terrible!
27 Dec 06
§ The good old days were hectic, too
"Never in history has there been so much competition for the attention of the
average individual . .. ours is a Busy Age . . unparalleled technological
developments" -- 1949 Preface to Master Plots
§ Praise is due to the Royal Oak School District for its decision to move its elections to November. Those who complain that the school board and administration are "slow learners" seem unable to escape their grudge-mindset.
§ Governor Granholm's tax plan includes taxing all assets of all companies. "Assets" include Accounts Receivable, so she intends to tax businesses on money they haven't yet received. That's "tax relief"?
03 Jan 07
10 Jan 06
17 Jan 07
24 Jan 07
Environmentalists almost prevented Paris from becoming the world-famous,
beautiful City of Light.
French man-of-letters Jacques Barzun once pointed out that in 1830 most of Paris's landmarks, like the Eiffel Tower, didn't exist and that the area they now occupy was "a muddy expanse crossed by ditches."
Wetlands, you know.
31 Jan 07
Of course, we won't have to fight anywhere else. . . . No American will ever again die in battle. . . . There will be peace in the world. . . .Other nations will love us.. . . Thank you, Jane Fonda.
07 Feb 07
So many of them, in the words of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, have " grown full of small sudden angers," no matter how trivial the topic.
14 Feb 07
Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce keeps the faith.
The Wall Street Journal has pointed out that both the national and several large city chambers of commerce seem to have lost their faith in keeping government small. Instead, they are lobbying for projects and programs which benefit this or that segment of the private sector -- mainly public construction projects.
It was great, therefore, to hear the Royal Oak Chamber make clear its independence from government, especially city government, in its recent presentation to the city commission.
21 Feb 07
I like my idea better:
Anyone who pays property tax in Royal Oak, on a home or on a commercial property and whether a resident or not, should be able to vote on local matters like the Fire Fighters Proposal A, the Library millage, a School millage.28 Feb 07
While Thomas Jefferson was governor of Virginia in the early
years of our Revolutionary War, he was criticized for acting cowardly and for
allowing the state to be occupied by the British. So legislators did what they
always do: The Virginia Assembly passed a resolution for an investigation of his
conduct.
The more things change . . .
14 Mar 07
Allowing for unavoidable exaggeration, a
substantial number of people, the usual suspects, attended a recent town hall
dealing with mass transportation. News headlines and lead paragraphs gave
the impression that the attendance validated the desire of the general
population for light rail and all that. Having covered the pluses and minuses of
mass transportation for decades, I unsuccessfully searched the reports for some
heretofore unrevealed evidence that Southeastern Michigan residents will use light
rail if it ever comes or that mass transportation can ever be cost-justified in
this area.
Nah, nothing's changed. Same old wish-thoughts. My previous comments re mass transportation remain valid. See Mass Transit: who needs it?
21 Mar 07
During our Revolutionary and
post-Revolutionary years, American ships were stopped or captured at will and
our seamen were impressed into foreign service by French and English
privateers -- privately commissioned war vessels. That was one reason which
led to our War of 1812 against Great Britain. I haven't researched to learn for
how many hundred years privateers were employed by European nations, including
the Netherlands and Spain, but apparently we used privateers for a while, too. Now, that's outsourcing!
04 Apr 07
An email campaign of sorts seems
underway to convince the City Commission to approve Black Finn's liquor license
(with conditional dancing permit attached). I -- along with others, I assume --
have received copies of five such messages so far. Although the intent of
every message is the same, the language is not boilerplate; each writer speaks
from a personal viewpoint.
'Tis for CITCOM to decide whether they are hearing from a vocal minority or from the until now silent majority -- then to ignore the messages and vote on the merits of the issue, as each elected official sees those merits.
Puritans vs. Sinners? I know where I stand: "Social drinkers of the world, Unite!"
11 Apr 07
Voters are the greedy ones?
There is academic disagreement over who first suggested that democracies will eventually fail once voters realize they can vote themselves "largesse" out of the public trough. And the supposed quotation, at least 200 years old, is variously worded in historical literature.
I like the modern, unattributed, version: "Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote."
18 Apr 07
A school in Holly was shut down because "a
drop of mercury the size of a pea" fell onto a science room floor. Ridiculous.
During my years as a metallurgical chemist, I and my staff of laboratory technicians handled mercury several times every day. Now and then, when transferring the liquid metal from its supply container to analytical apparatus, there would be a demitasse-spoonful spill, which we scooped up, cleaned, and found a use for. Not one of us has ever been diagnosed as brain-damaged or "poisoned" in any way. Nor was anyone else in the building harmed over the years. There is simply no way that a drop of mercury can pose a danger -- to the one who dropped it or to others in the school.
A form of political correctness contends we must all be wrapped in cotton batting for protection. But wait: I wonder how hazardous the cotton is.
25 Apr 07
Twins are going around?
David Poulton, chairman of the Charter Review Committee, had to miss a
CRC meeting because of the arrival of twins: Ella Grace, 4 lbs-15 oz,
18-1/2 inches tall and Jackson David, 5 lbs-12 oz, 19 inches tall.
Soon after, Kevin Kalcynski, president of the Downtown Development Authority Board had to adjust his professional and volunteer commitments because of the arrival of twins: Maxwell Cade, 5 lbs-9 oz, 18 inches tall and Ella Ambrose, 5 lbs-15 oz, 19 inches tall.
In addition to contributing volunteer hours to civic matters, these guys are providing prospective students for Royal Oak Schools.
02 May 07
"You People"
Except for a couple of news clips, I've not watched or listened to Imus. I did see
the TV clip when he used the phrase "you people" while conversing with
Al Sharpton,
and I chuckled once again at Sharpton's pretense at being offended.
It is illogical, it is conveniently hypocritical, for those who stress their group identity and its uniqueness -- who seek benefits as a group; who take offense as a group; who claim rights as a group; who boast of accomplishments as a group -- to complain when someone acknowledges their self-proclaimed group identity and refers to them as "you people."
On occasion, it is as appropriate to say "you people" as to say "my people."
09 May 07
Repetitive news stories declaim the huge
salaries being paid corporate executives, especially in those cases where the
company is not doing well. One can disagree with
the judgment of those corporate boards which approve such compensation,
but certainly not with their right to exercise that judgment.
Who besides leftover communists thinks our country will be better off if the government controls compensation in the private sector?
16 May 07
During decades of business/professional
travel, I made it a point to pick up the local newspaper, whatever the size of
city I visited, and to read at least the editorial page, letters to the editor,
personal/family advice columnists, and
anonymous phone calls to the editor. That reading menu gives one a snapshot
of which issues matter locally and what the several levels of readers think about
those matters. I use the same approach these days with five southeastern
Michigan newspapers, to which I add spot-checking regional and state websites,
including those where contributors are permitted to hide their identity behind a
screen-name.
Even for those of us who, whether vainly or snobbishly, wouldn't think of disguising our identity when we enter public dialogue, reading anonymous missives gives a feel for the voice of the people about both trivial and serious matters. The use of anonymity to complain, to criticize, to comment, to mount personal attacks, or simply to chat is a revealing aspect of vox populi.
23 May 07
I don't smoke. Never have. But some of my friends smoke. Unfortunately, smokers
stink. Their clothes stink. Their hair
stinks. Their car stinks. Nothing, though, stinks as much as City Commissioner
Gary Lelito's proposal to ban smoking most places in Royal Oak.
Except for long-term, sustained exposure -- as the only nonsmoker in a family of smokers, for example -- the alleged widespread harm from second-hand smoke is even more speculative than the arguments for global warming. Most of us can decide for ourselves under what circumstances and how often to expose ourselves to second-hand smoke. Thanks, Gary, but there's no need for government to butt in here.
30 May 07
I have several times one way or another
criticized those who approach civic dialogue with excessive emotion -- shouting,
for example, or using oratorical vehemence to feign anger, or producing fake
tears to demonstrate intense concern. There are those, I suppose, who
temperamentally can't help but feel rather than think, even though that diminishes
their effectiveness in debate.
To the point: English writer E. M. Forster, in his acclaimed A Passage to
India, says of one character: "Aziz had no sense of evidence. The sequence of his emotions decided his
beliefs . . . "
Ideally, of course, one feels and thinks about important matters, personal and public. From a 19th Century writer whose name I have forgotten, "None of us can get rid of our emotions, but we can learn to drive them in harness." -
06 June 07
Humor misunderstood
Because wife Muriel is curator of the Royal Oak Historical Society Museum, my
home phone is frequently called by someone wanting to reach the society or the
museum. Surprised when I answer "Frank Versagi, here," the caller almost always
asks, "Is this the historical society?" to which I reply, "It is when my wife is
home."
Most callers catch the joke and
chuckle. A few are quiet for three or four seconds, then get seriously to
business. A very few seem offended or angry.
Nothing is funny to everyone, I guess.
13 June 07
Mixed Company
I think of this vanity website as an extension of my participation in table talk. As in those
gatherings, VersagiVoice readers agree and disagree, sometimes
vigorously. In common, individuals in both table talk and readership share
a willingness to expose themselves to opposing points of
view, whatever the topic.
That's in sharp contrast to all those New Yorkers who reportedly commented, the year that Nixon won his second term in a landside, "I don't know anyone who voted for Nixon."
20 June 07
During my decades as a management consultant,
I encouraged employers to opt for bonuses rather than profit-sharing.
When employees grumbled, I'd ask them if they were willing to share losses
-- to give money back -- in those years the company lost money..
Whether a bonus is given and how much must remain the decisions of the employer -- a right the worker can exercise when in a few years she becomes an employer.
28 June 07
I am a fan neither of filmmaker Michael Moore
nor of dictator Fidel Castro, but the recent flap over Moore's visit to Cuba
reminded me that I consider both Democrat and Republican policy toward Cuba
tunnel-visioned.
Our officials and diplomats should talk to everybody: Cuba and Syria and Iran and North Korea. Hey, anybody can get along with nice people!
04 July 07
How will the indifference of Royal Oak voters
noted elsewhere on this page affect local elections which may see 9 candidates, one for Mayor and
eight for Commissioner?
There will be three commissioner seats open. Two of the candidates, Andrzejak and Drinkwine, are incumbents, leading to two speculations: (1) There really is only one seat open. (2) Both Mike and Terry have raised enough ire among voters that their incumbency does not assure them re-election.
It remains to be seen whether the plethora of candidates feeds voter indifference or sparks voter interest.
09 July 07
Correction:
There are 9 candidates listed so far with the Royal Oak City Clerk, not
10 as I stated last week. There are 8 candidates for
commissioner and 1 for mayor. It's early, but I'm already hearing from
this or that candidate -- and possible candidates. . . . Recent developments
have raised the issues of changing our form of city government or of changing
the people running it.
[See]
As important as local politics are, we mustn't lose sight of the nation's security interests, like what we should do about Iran.
19 July 07
Sorry to be late:
A little health event during the budget
discussion at the 16 July CITCOM meeting, followed by a brief hospital visit
which ended only an hour or so ago, has kept me from preparing my usual CITCOM
summary and from absorbing the personality-driven local news which erupted
during my hospitalization..
I'll get to both in next week's update of Versagi Voice.
25 July 07
From our very beginnings, Americans have had to
deal with sunshine soldiers.
"Six yeas into the War of Independence," with his Army unpaid and suffering a harsh winter with not enough food or clothing or supplies, George Washington's worries were added to by the fear "that those who had opposed independence would gain control of Congress and sue for peace with Britain." -- Smithsonian, July 2007
01 Aug 07
§ Two Royal Oak public
figures had police encounters in the same week, and the gossip-minded got
right into it with largely unkind, even malicious, speculation. I think we
should apply the Bill Clinton Waiver. You know: Unless it provably
affects one's public duties, personal behavior should be a non-issue.
§ Now and then, readers ask permission to reproduce some of my material. This website is not copyrighted. Feel free to use whatever you'd like. A brief credit-line to VersagiVoice would be nice.
08 Aug 07
The Uses & Abuse of Anonymity --
continued
I've sampled 89 anonymous, phoned in Sound Offs in the Daily Tribune. 74% are
negative comments; 8% are neutral -- offering a reasoned conclusion or a question about an issue -- and
the remaining 18% are positive. The gentlest word which can be applied to the
negative calls is "churlish."
With Caller I.D., I suspect the Trib filters out the really chronic complainers. Still, one wonders what purpose is served by publishing such a steady diet of anonymous negativity, except, I suppose, it does give readers a sense of what people are thinking/feeling.
15 Aug 07
No Taliban faction in Birmingham?
Only a couple of months after Royal Oak's CITCOM split into dancing/no dancing -- Puritan/Sinner -- factions, we read that nearby Birmingham's elected officials have approved belly dancing as entertainment in one of the city's bistros.
Have they no shame!
22 Aug 07
Michigan public schools are among
those disappointed by the performance of their students on
standardized tests. As it stands, schools are rated on the assumption that
all students should be able to absorb the required information and concepts.
What if individuals are not equally capable of learning? Is it fair to the student or to the school to hold every pupil to the same standard? As politically incorrect as it may be, some researchers suggest the answer to that question is "no." A related point of view, recently reported in Time magazine, contends that by focusing so much on low-achieving children, schools have neglected gifted students.
05 Sep 07
Kudos to the Downtown Development Association.
From a very wet May, through a blistering July, into early September, the floral arrangements in planters and hanging baskets on Washington and on Main from Eleven Mile to Lincoln have remained fresh and lovely. The DDA and its contractor, Worry Free, both deserve a Gold Star for exceptional achievement.
10 Sep 07
It is one thing to be on guard
against government at all levels. It is another to assign evil motives to
elected and appointed officials with whom one disagrees. Years ago, I wrote of
what I called the "UFO mindset." If one believes that UFOs are space vehicles
either staffed by or controlled by extraterrestrials, then everything which
happens or doesn't happen and every book which treats with UFOs, favorably or
not, can be interpreted to support that belief.
So, if one dislikes Politician A, for whatever reason, and considers her "devious," everything she does or doesn't do "proves" she can't be trusted. Convenient, eh.
19 Sep 07
TALIBAN ALERT!
Last Friday in Royal Oak, 200 people gathered and listened to musical
entertainment, drank alcohol, conducted boisterous table conversations and --
gasp! -- danced for several hours. BUT, there were no fights; no nearby residents
complained about rowdy behavior or trespassing on their property; there were
no calls for a police run.
This sinful event was a successful fundraiser at the Elks Club held to benefit Safety City USA.
26 Sep 07
Trivial matters department
§ In this update, I continue to use the word "lectern" when I refer to
the tall desk in front of which Public Comment speakers stand and on which they
place their papers. Language Puritans wince each time the mayor invites
residents to approach the "podium" because we know that a podium
is a platform on which people stand to deliver a speech or to conduct
a symphony. . . . Sigh.
§ One of Parkinson's laws is, "The man who is denied the possibility of making important decisions will regard as important those decisions he is allowed to make." . . . Bring anybody to mind?
03 Oct 07
Too many Environmentalists maintain: No nuclear
power plants. No fossil fuel power plants. No hydro power plants (dams).
Too many Royal Oakers want: No millage increase. No selling of city assets. No reduction of city services.
What are such people thinking? Where are their minds?
10 Oct 07
So term limits aren't working,
eh?
Let's see. Before term limits, there never were any screw-ups or logjams in Lansing. And the Blanchard-era recalls after a tax increase never happened. Talk about selective memory.
Notice, readers, that there are two voices strongly urging repeal of term limits: elected officials themselves and the media which covers them. Talk about conflict of interest.
17Oct 07
It is true to write, "The Bible
says, 'There is no God.'"
That sentence appears several times in the Bible, perhaps most familiarly in
Psalm 14:1, where the complete passage reads, "The fool says in his heart,
'There is no God.'" That is an excellent example of quoting out of context in such a way that the speaker's or writer's clear intent is deliberately
distorted or reversed.
Certainly, the left has done that by taking Rush Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" out of context. There is no polite word for what Senator Reid and the New York Times have done. They knowingly lied in making the charge. Even that irritating blowhard, to whom I seldom listen, deserves better than that.
24 Oct 07
Where were the candidates?
About 900 people attended the Royal Oak Middle School Open House described
below. Mayor Ellison was there to represent the city. Clyde Esbri was a school
community workhorse for the affair. Ellison and I encountered Candidate Mitzi Hoffman but
no other candidates in the three hours we circulated.
Some civic activists attribute the mass-absence of candidates to the city-wide impression that the school community contains only a relatively few citizens who are also involved in non-school events and volunteer work, so can safely be ignored. That thinking justifies, in some minds, the candidates' absences, "especially since there's the candidates forum on Tuesday'." -- Where perhaps 200, 300 will attend?
31 Oct 07
BODIES, BROOMS & BUCKET BRIGADE
Fire Station #2 begins its transition to the Royal Oak Historical Society Museum
at 10 a.m., Saturday, 10 November. Volunteer carrying dust mops, rags, buckets,
Spic-and-Span, and the like begin cleaning the building to prepare it to receive
artifacts and display units now located at Churchill Continuing Education
Center.
Arrange to join the happy crew anytime before 5 p.m. by calling Curator Muriel Versagi: 248.542.7449.
07 Nov 07
Except for the tiniest bit of
negative campaigning, primarily with house-to-house literature-drops in two or
three neighborhoods, campaigning
was quiet -- even soporific -- during Royal Oak's contests for mayor and for
commissioner. Few lawn signs. Few letters to the editor. Few invitations to
candidates from service clubs or civic organizations. Relatively few mailings.
Whether cause-ad-effect or coincidence, voter turnout was an anemic 18% of registered voters. The only lower turnout I could find was when 12% turned out for a schools-only election.
14 Nov 07
Angle parking on Washington seems
here to stay.
There has been no formal report -- originally to be made after Labor Day this year -- but neither have there been reports of major problems. Instead we see, in one DDA promotional piece, praise from retailers and speculation that the city is studying the pros and cons of converting to angle parking on additional downtown streets.
Humph. I dodge Washington and take Main or Lafayette instead. -- except when I'm shopping or dining on Washington. But that was the intention, right?
21 Nov 07
Most of those readers who comment
in writing about something in VersagiVoice -- in praise or criticism, in
agreement or disagreement, for publication or not --
respond in two time-clusters. One cluster writes within a day, even within an hour,
of an update. Then there are the "weekenders" who tell me they
wait till Saturday or Sunday so they will have
more time to read and react than is available during the workweek.
And there are those readers who don't write but who offer comment during club meetings, civic gatherings, at the drug store or supermarket. At the Mitt Romney event held in Jimi's Restaurant, one reader shouted, "I agree with you all the time." and his table companions broke up when I shouted back, "Ah, a fellow redneck!" Another in the gathering quietly agreed with my disappointed impressions of the mayoral debate. He went further and labeled it "a non-event."
28 Nov 07
I read that the public elementary
school in Huntington Woods is being used for a Chanukah Carnival, with
accompanying religious celebrations and Kosher food. Nothing wrong with that.
There's a large Jewish population in Huntington Woods, taxpayers all.
But in the absence of an ACLU
challenge, one finds it easy to agree with those who suggest that the American
Civil Liberties Union should change its name to
Anti
Christian
Lobbying
Unit.
05 Dec 07
It must be a generational thing.
The same people who bristle at
the slightest chance that government or marketers might violate their privacy
are willing to provide details about their thoughts and activities, including
personal and family photos and videos, to millions of viewers in the blogging community.
Go figure.
12 Dec 07
The hazards of satire.
My joshing last week about gender discrimination because outgoing commissioner Pat Capello
was presented with a floral bouquet apparently could be interpreted as a serious
complaint against either CITCOM or the Administration. It was neither. And this
is a good place to clarify that the presentation was a personal one by Mayor
Ellison and his wife, Jodie. No city money was spent.
19 Dec 07
The recent weekend snowstorm reminded me
that when my corporate offices were in Birminghan, on
Fifteen Mile just east of Woodward,
a similar storm hit. The next business day some employees struggled in, but many
-- including a handful who lived within walking distance -- called in that
they were snow-bound. One editorial assistant who lived
in Ferndale used her cross-country skis to get to work. I gave her an immediate
salary increase. (At right, the view through my current study window.)
09 Jan 08
Royal Oak's Department of Public
Service has taken advantage of the early January thaw and rain to scoop up the
leaves left over by last year's late denuding of trees followed by two snow
emergencies.
Watch for the anonymous soundoffs complaining about the noise from using snow plows to gather and dump leaves and complaining further about those few leftover leaves which plowing dumped onto grassy areas and driveways.
16 Jan 08
Mark Shields,
widely known far-left commentator on public affairs, provides an excellent
guideline for judging and choosing a presidential candidate. Unless one is
a single-issue voter, it is impossible to find an individual with whom one
agrees 100%, so Shields maintains a voter is forced to consider personality,
style.
Each candidate has "virtue and values," he says. The voter accepts or rejects those
characteristics despite agreeing or disagreeing with the candidate about one or more
issues.
So for voters Clinton's likeability becomes a consideration . . . and Huckabee's country-boy populism . . . and Edwards's oratorical anger . . . and Romney's low-key reasonableness . . . and Obama's preachy optimism. . . . and McCain's bluntness . . . and Giuliani's personal life -- all the while searching for authenticity in message and behavior.
23 Jan 08
Wrongly or rightly:
Democrat Wilson, with his vision of worldwide democracy, got us into World War
I. . . . Democrat Roosevelt, with his pro-British, pro-Soviet, and anti-Japanese
policies, led us into World War II. . . . Democrat Truman dropped The Bomb and,
later, put us in Korea. (Republican Eisenhower negotiated the truce/armistice.).
. . Democrat Kennedy, expanding on Eisenhower's advisors in Vietnam, committed
combat boots. . . . Democrat Johnson expanded our presence in Vietnam.
(Bringing the troops home began under Republican Nixon.) . . . Democrat Clinton
bombed Serbia and stationed U.S. troops in the Balkans for "one year."
They are still there.
Wars of Choice, all?
30 Jan 08
Journalists at their worst.
How does publishing pictures of Detroit mayor Kwame's kids and wife on vacation serve the
public's right to know about governmental matters?
How does such media voyeurism help citizens decide about the specific legal/ethical/political issues involved?
06 Feb 08
It's disappointing for a
conservative to have to admit that CNN out-performs Fox News Channel in
presenting substantive coverage of diverse serious issues during non-prime
hours. Of course one must guard against being swayed by the left-leaning
speeches with which CNN staffers precede each question and color each
presentation.
Both CNN and FNC waste too many minutes with their spastic and noisy graphics during transitions from news to commercials and vice versa. MSNBC runs a weak third, hoping that rapid-fire Chris Matthews and well-spoken but snotty Keith Olbermann will attract more viewers than they drive away. On the plus-side, MSNBC has the universally admired and detested but fair-minded Tim Russert.
13 Feb 08
The Presidential Election is being balkanized by identity
politics -- by both parties to a degree, by one party mostly.
We're being told that groups have separate agendas: Blacks, Latinos, Jews, Asians, Women, Gays & Lesbians, Rich, Poor. With both parties using Spanish in parts of their campaign, even a non-bigot can be excused for wondering whether we will be seeing and hearing campaign messages in Ebonics, and Hebrew, and Hillbilly, and Sexual Street Talk, and Vietnamese.
No one is yet reaching out to my favorite minority: left-handed Lithuanians.
20 Feb 08
On principle, the Democrat party should not count
the ineligible Florida and Michigan votes for Hillary. On principle,
Barack should end anticipatory complaining about what the Super-delegates
or Automatic delegates or Independent delegates must do, or not do. On
principle, Obama had better -- publicly, if necessary -- warn his
supporters against making statements which can easily be interpreted as
veiled threats of violence should those delegates not vote the "right"
way.
All those Democrat campaigning rules have been around for, what, 16 years? Seeking late advantage in what has become a lower-case democratic contest, Hillary and Barack are both behaving like precinct captains.
27 Feb 08
§ I am among those
Libertarians-Conservatives-Republicans who boast that they approach political
debates reasonably, putting aside for the most part the emotions which are
natural to such a mindset. In our unkind moments, we belittle-criticize-dismiss
those on the political left who seem unable to debate other than loudly and
emotionally. ... So I am dismayed by the Coulter-Limbaugh camp's
foaming-at-the-mouth attacks on John McCain, which come across as no different
than the left's unthinking gut-level opposition to all things Bush or
Republican. ... And I voted for Romney.
§ Last week's reader reactions to VersagiVoice, oral and written, were 2-to-1 concerned about national issues rather than local issues. For the time being it seems Clinton, Obama, and McCain are more in focus than are Ellison and Hoover and their respective teams.
05 Mar 08
Of Pollsters & Pundits
Pollsters can't resist publishing their guestimates even after several very
embarrassing wrong guesses. That's okay. Most of us consider pollsters as
reliable as weather forecasters -- interesting but not very useful.
Political pundits behave the same way. The most recent example is highly respected Dick Morris. He predicted when the campaigns began that Clinton was unstoppable, stating flatly that Hillary would be the next president. In mid-February, though, we read Morris predicting that Obama is unstoppable, that he will win the nomination. -- Interesting but not very useful.
12 Mar 08
Generation Gap
Until the turn of this century, the stereotypical symbol of a driven, Type A-plus personality was the middle executive shaving with an electric razor while reading the Wall Street Journal propped up on the mantelpiece, and sipping coffee.
Today, the symbol is the young woman inattentively jaywalking across the street, looking into space, with a cellphone at her right ear, and with her laptop bag threatening to slip off her left shoulder, and sipping coffee.
The more things change .
19 Mar 08
Whatever it may mean, not one of my
responding readers except the pro-filter advocate from New Jersey named below supports
installing Internet filters on the adult computers in the Royal Oak Library. Two
or three -- who admit they haven't been paying attention -- think the present
practices and policies at the library should be left in place unless sound
evidence emerges which proves they are not working'; the rest of the respondents
are firmly anti-filter.
Less charitably, some fear that the "Internet scare" and the concurrent School District's decision to initiate random drug testing suggests an unwelcome upsurge of the "Taliban faction" mindset about which I have now-and-then chided CITCOM.
26 Mar 08
§ During the ongoing discussion
about regionalizing Fire Protection -- from which Royal Oak seems to have opted
out -- there is always the the insistence that an "Authority" must be formed,
and
Zoo lovers are hoping to set up a Zoo Authority. An "Authority," you understand,
is a taxing entity, authorized to place millages on the ballot. As such, an
Authority is just another version of an earmarked or dedicated millage. A tax by any other name . . .
§ Some have expressed concern that Commissioners Andrzejak, Ginotti, Miller, and Semchena have formed a 4-man voting bloc, a quadrumvirate. Their power-move in re-establishing the Ice Arena Committee brought the speculation into the open. That's a bit premature. Yes, newly elected Semchena joins three Republicans on CITCOM, and he can be expected to be conservative on fiscal issues. However, on most CITCOM deliberations -- the majority of which got unanimous votes -- his comments and voting so far strike me, not as knee-jerk ideological, but as issue-oriented,
02 Apr 08
Peace in our time.
A Quaker heard an intruder in his house, came out of his bedroom, shotgun in hand, aimed the shotgun at the intruder and said, "Thou knowest I am a Quaker and therefore nonviolent. Thou knowest that I would in no way hurt my fellowman.
"But, sir, thou standest where I am about to shoot."
09 Apr 08
I have occasionally mentioned
"arrogance" while discussing politicians and public figures. This is an
intellectual, rather than an emotional characteristic. "Fire in the belly," for
example, characterizes the emotional cravings which accompany ambition.
Belly-fire shows mostly through the use of real or feigned anger to
demonstrate conviction. The
mental arrogance of which I speak is less emotional and is well demonstrated by a
quiet statement attributed
to Theodore Roosevelt.
" . . . in seeking to achieve decent ends, one must be patient and uncomplaining and even-tempered not only with knaves, but with well-meaning foolish people, educated and uneducated [while] groping to find the 'right' course."
Sound like anybody you know?
16 Apr 08
Previously, I reported some reader-uneasiness with my teasing-use of the word
"Taliban" to refer to those with a seemingly excessive concern about
individual social behavior -- of others. I said I will continue to use
"Puritan" and "Sinner" in my joshing comments. Other readers have suggested
"Morality Police" and "Blue Noses" as appropriate labels for Puritans. No
suggestions, yet, of other names for Sinners.
Speaking of words, somewhere I read that government at all levels considers it a "crisis" whenever revenues are lower than, not the needs of government, but lower than "the desired level of spending."
23 Apr 08
One of the pleasures of being a
senior citizen is the frequent occasion one has to cluck-cluck about how much
better we did this or that in our time. Another gratification is to fondly
continue using 3x5 cards to supplement our computerized databases.
Worrisome to old-timers, though, are real changes in the "tenor of the times." From self-sufficiency, to excessive dependence on others, on government. From a real respect for privacy -- our own and that of others -- to a litigious defense of privacy while electronically exposing one's thoughts and actions to the world at large. From a self-confidence which includes a willingness to live with some self-doubt, to such an extreme need for self-esteem that even serious business periodicals regularly publish psychobabble for executives alongside market studies.
So it is that the "Greatest Generation" perhaps too hastily labels too many individuals "whiners."
30 Apr 08
Should strikes be outlawed in
this economic climate? No.
Are unions stupid to strike in the current economic climate? It depends.
Unions have been known (1) to strike for the wrong reason; (2) to strike at the wrong time; (3) to stay on strike too long; (4) not to stay on strike long enough. It may be reasonable now and then to question a union's judgment, but it is never justifiable to threaten to deprive Labor of its last resort, the right to strike, no matter how good or bad the economic climate.
07 May 08
The word "politics" has so
many meanings, implied or inferred, that it is sometimes hard to know which meaning is intended.
People say "politics" when they mean
"diplomacy" or "negotiation" or, even, "behind the
scenes sneakiness." Two definitions seem to me to capture all the
word's possible implications. 1) Politics is "the science
and art of government." Hence, "political science." 2) Politics is "the advocacy
of a specific ideological cause." Hence, "partisan politics."
In any country, politics makes for strange bedfellows. That's because it is possible to agree with one's political opponents on some matters. During America's 1800s Religious Revivals, for example, Evangelicals politically opposed alcohol, tobacco, dancing, slavery, Unitarianism, and Catholicism. Easy to see why politically active non-Evangelicals or Secularists felt obligated to cull that list a bit.
14 May 08
One complaint about school
elections and voter initiatives or referenda is that too-small a segment of
voters has a disproportionate influence. This complaint is especially
leveled against those school districts which insist on holding their millage
elections in May.
Perhaps Michigan can adopt a policy used in several European countries: At least 25% of eligible voters must participate to make the results valid, no matter what the yea/nay mix.
21May 08
Why some doubt history
Where did "cop" come from as a nickname for police officer?
British answer:
from the first letters of each word in "Constable
On
Patrol."
American answer:
from the short-form of "copper," which was the metal
used for the badges of America's first uniformed police in the early
1800s.
28 May 08
"I'm a taxpayer" is not a valid
argument, whether the issue being debated is selling city property or installing Internet
filters or licensing day spas.
When one contends that being a taxpayer entitles one to ban "objectionable" movies from being shown in a tax-supported venue, as an example, what of the rights of those who are willing to watch those same movies and who are also taxpayers?
05 Jun 08
CITCOM and the Administration
have worked their way through three meetings in six days, summarized
sequentially below. Whatever one's opinion of the competence or personality of
individual elected or appointed individuals, and whether one agrees or disagrees
with specific decisions or performance by those individuals, their votes --
especially re budget matters -- reflect conscientiousness. That sincerity came though
as humor, as boredom, as anger. And analysis of the few
split-votes reveals no
partisan or ideological pattern, just differences based on some mix of principle
and temperament.
Next comes the test of courage as they begin -- soon, I hope -- to think beyond 2009. I'll plug in a thought or two about that, starting next week.
12 Jun 08
Petty complaint 772
Attempts to be politically correct with gender references frequently go
beyond inconvenient to stupid. They even go ungrammatical, as in using
plural pronouns like "they," "them," and "their" to avoid clumsy equivalents
like "he/she" and "him/her and "his/her."
So sensitive have some become that they use "chairperson" when the name "Jim" or "Susan" straightforwardly calls for "chairman" or "chairwoman." The person-form makes sense only when the position itself is being referenced, not a known individual.
I am trying to locate again a mention I read of a female magazine executive who insisted on being called "editress." You know, like "actress."
18 Jun 08
Someone has written that
"digital nomadism" is changing city-suburb demographics.
"The car divided cities into work and home areas; wireless technology may mix them up again, with more people working in the suburbs or living in city centers." Not necessarily a good thing, because a "new tyranny" will result from everyone being "always on."
25 Jun 08
Planned Parenthood does a great
job of promoting family planning, even as it goes so far in promoting abortion
as to cause kooks to kill doctors and bomb clinics. Sociologically, though, its
drive to keep population growth down ignores demographic concerns that the U.S.
-- Western civiliaztion -- is in danger of collapsing because of too-low a birthrate. Around
the country, the
group is currently expanding from the inner city to the suburbs, which some see
as deserting the deserving poor.
Mixed motives may be operating
here. From The End of Racism, by Dinesh D'Asouza:
Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, established a "Negro Project"
whose intent is shown in this quote: "We do not want word to get out that we
want to exterminate the Negro population."
02 Jul 08
Nasty, nasty.
A handful of readers --
possibly one reader hiding behind a handful of fake non-names like "concerned
citizen" -- have recently submitted personal attacks about elected
officials.
Sorry, guys or gals. Even if you drum up the courage to identify yourself, you won't be published if you can't keep in mind the difference between criticizing public figures for their performance in office and impugning their integrity or alleging improper private behavior.
09 Jul 08
Listening to their
constituents? Choosing which special interests to serve?
During the on-and-off dialogue re sidewalk signs, we have heard from city hall,
"We have received complaints." No names, no numbers, but based on those
complaints and some questionable speculation about harm to the public, such
signs are banned by ordinance, despite repeated pleas from retailers.
Yet there is no reaction from city hall to a steady stream of complaints -- signed letters to the editor as well as published anonymous phone calls -- about the Woodward Dream Cruise.
'Tis a puzzlement.
16 Jul 08
A week or so ago, I mentioned receiving an increase in
anonymous personal attacks
on Royal Oak elected officials. Now, anonymous negative comments about
public officials are appearing in messages phoned to area daily newspapers.
Must be something in the air. It's puzzling to me that people go the
anonymous route even when they are offering praise or making a neutral
comment. I've been told of individuals who ask to use a friendly
restaurant's telephone in a city other than where they live -- in case the
newspaper uses Caller I.D. on its sound-off line.
Would the public be harmed, would readership drop, if all newspapers refused to publish anonymous messages?
23 Jul 08
Lesson from long ago?
Of the visit of St. Francis
of Assisi to the Holy Land, where he spoke with Crusaders and with a Sultan, historian Steve Runciman wrote:
"He had come to the East believing, as many good and unwise persons before and after him have believed, that a peace-mission can bring about peace."
30 Jul 08
There's a new search engine
on the Web.
It offers an unconventional 3-column page. It seems perhaps too much focused on celebrity/entertainment information when searched for generic information, but it's worth exploring. So far, not a whole lot of ads get in your face as they do on Google. (My favorite search engine remains www.Ask.com.)
Try it. Search for "vouchers" or "how now brown cow" or "Iraq" at www.cuil.com.
04 Aug 08
It is easy to think "excess"
or "windfall" when reading about oil company profits in the billions of dollars.
But the industry's range of operating profit-on-sales is 7-8 %. That means for every
dollar in sales, the firm makes 7 or 8 cents. The rest of each sales dollar,
92 to 93 cents, is spent for operations (direct costs and overhead).
Many small businesses aim/hope for 10-20% operating profit, 10 to 20 cents per dollar of sales. Of course, there are those industries, like supermarkets and some kinds of construction contractors, which and who exist for generations making 1-4% profit, a penny to 4 cents per dollar of sales.
Business owners and managers are so greedy.
13 Aug 08
In America, 90% of airline
passengers travel to the airport by private car or taxi. In Europe and
Asia, 66% use buses, trains, or shared vans to to-and-from the airport.
Riding trains and buses usually costs less than driving and paying for
parking, but Americans prefer the flexibility of private transportation.
Even in cities which provide excellent train service to the airport, flyers don't use it: In Philadelphia, 3%: in Cleveland (whose "Rapid Transit" I used when I lived in my native city), 2%. -- Report by government-funded Transportation Research Board.
20 Aug 08
Dutch traffic engineer Hans
Monderman has gained international recognition for his unconventional street
and intersection designs. His approach favors removing traffic lights, stop
signs, even some lane markings. He theorizes, and the evidence seems to
support his theory, that making driving seem "dangerous" causes motorists to
drive more safely. Among his concepts is that the automobile has changed our
measure of travel from distance to time, from "how far?" to "how long?"
Reading about Monderman brought to mind our experience visiting Northern Michigan relatives. As they asked about the distance to downtown Detroit, for example, or to this or that sports complex, we would answer "20 minutes," or "half-an-hour."
"Don't you have miles down there," they puzzled.
27 Aug 08
How about a "zone of silence"
until both the Democratic and Republican conventions are over?
Most major decisions have been made, so the conventions are just shows. After those moving and spectacular Olympics ceremonies, even the best scripted events in Denver and St. Paul will be dull.
The networks and cable channels will alert us if anything really important happens or if controversy erupts, and the print media will fill out the outline provided by the electronic guys and gals.
03 Sep 08
VersagiVoice "watchers" have noticed that my
coffee conversations with pubic figures, both on- and off-the-record, are being
held mostly at Jimi's Restaurant, since Hagelstein's Bakery closed. Not all
those public figures are recognized by diners. It's the usual case of a face
seeming familiar but not recognized out-of-context.
Recently I had conversations with several female personages in a row. Again, not all of them were recognized by the diners, but enough of Jimi's regulars recognized me to ask whether I was preparing a woman-of-the month series. The most fun came when I was meeting with a local journalist, and both of us were recognized by a local politician, who loudly alerted everyone in the place about potential trouble afoot.
Probably next week, I'll publish the report of my conversation with Commissioner Carlo Ginotti.
10 Sep 08
I have seen and have received blog-type rants
against Obama and now against Palin. It doesn't take long to learn that the
lengthy
ones will be irresponsible, even vicious. The technique, you see, is to include
several widely recognized pieces of information from respected sources. Then
sneak in malicious misinformation, usually without attribution or with
attribution to alleged sources which cannot be readily verified. The excessive length
reflects the gut-level intensity of the writer and is intended to suggest
thorough research.
What's happening is that too many blogs are becoming the online equivalent of supermarket tabloids. And those blogs and those tabloids are the primary source of information about public affairs for too many people.
Worrisome, but one downside of living in a free country.
17 Sep 08
During a visit to Denmark years ago my wife
Muriel and I were guests for a couple of nights at a country lodge owned by the
company where I was speaking. Each night we heard a coo coo clock at odd hours.
After unsuccessfully searching for the clock, we asked where it was -- only to
be told there was no coo coo clock. What we were hearing were real coo coo birds
in the garden. And the caretaker wasn't talking about the cooing sound made by
pigeons or doves..
We never saw any clock-like birds in the garden, but we've never followed up. Whether or not she was putting us on, we don't want to spoil the memory of a delightful experience.
24 Sep 08
Sarah Palin's rapid rise -- Beauty Queen,
Volunteer, PTA, City Council, Mayor, Governor, candidate for Vice President -- reminds me of the
complaints too many voters make that "politicians" are somehow unworthy if they
use such stepping stones in their career. Certainly, there are
individuals who seek exposure in volunteer work or who run for, say, the School
Board as part of a plan to move up politically, but they are very few.
That mindset should not be considered a negative so long as the individual performs responsibly in each position along the way. I become uneasy, though, when a woman or man, who has never before joined a service club or volunteered in a widely recognized cause, suddenly acquires a desire to "get involved in the community" when preparing to run for office.
01 Oct 08
Customer service
be damned.
Sharply at noon: Banks send all but one or two tellers to lunch and Royal Oak City
Hall's service counters close completely.
Lunch hour, of course, is a convenient time for employed folks to run non-job errands. It's a bit like restaurant owners giving their cooks and waitresses time off for lunch at lunch time. How hard can it be to stagger lunch hours among staff to make adequate service available from noon-till-one?
08 Oct 08
"His face was melancholy in repose but would readily
light up with a charming smile." -- Runciman re Saladin, in his
3-volume history of the Crusades.
I suspect we all know someone whose face in repose gives the wrong first impression of that person's temperament and overall personality. Something to keep in mind when watching public figures or in judging an individual from a photograph.
15 Oct 08
CITCOM cast four split votes last week, each with a consistent
threesome and foursome. That would normally be only mildly worrisome, because the
tabulation of previous
split votes shows differing groupings, depending on the issue.
The
vote re the proposed Grand Sakwa development, though, raised the stakes.
City Hall observers have already generated conflicting theories: The "deal" has already been cut; CITCOM shenanigans
are just for show. No, "Royal Oak is living up to its
reputation of driving good developers out of town."
Although further, fragmented, details have been published, the jockeying -- suggestions of too many closed meetings, less than clearly stated timelines, conflicting descriptions about previous negotiations, doubts about whether the city or the developer or anybody was trying to keep information from reaching the public-- has led some VersagiVoice readers to suspect, "Somebody is lying." Sad that it has come to this.
22 Oct 08
The suspicious are amongst us.
VersagiVoice this week contains a list of the occupational backgrounds of CITCOM
and a list of those city positions which, by charter, are appointed by CITCOM. The
information was asked for by readers who have become uneasy or suspicious about
the way the Grand Sakwa deal is moving forward -- or being blocked. It is taken
for granted that residents are against the project. That is not the concern. The
concern is who is for it or against it, and why.
During the Oktoberfest at the Farmer's Market, it happened that Mayor Jim Ellison and his wife sat at a table for half an hour with me and a volunteer-colleague. Two city hall watchers asked me later what I had learned about the Sakwa affair. I could tell that neither believed me when I said we talked about our kids, Northwood Elementary (where we had met briefly earlier in the day), hearing aids used by family and friends, and the financial bailout. Geez, guys, there's more to life . . .
29 Oct 08
What a disappointment to read an overheated statement
like this in the usually reasoned Wall Street Journal: "With nearly
every day presenting a fresh financial emergency . . . "
Daily headlines, yes; about the varied views of the crisis, yes; about the many solutions proposed, yes. But there are no new emergencies erupting daily.
It's time to adopt what I have termed "the wisdom of the uninformed." Occasionally, stop watching or reading or listening to the news. Life will go on as before, and you'll experience an immediate sense of relaxation. At least, take enough mental time off to avoid getting trapped in the over-hyped emotionality of the journalistic moment.
03 Nov 08
During and since the candidates forum held at the Royal
Oak Library, I've had conversations in which term limits were debated. The
proximate cause was the political future of State Rep Marie Donigan, running
for her third and final term, and of County Commissioner Dave Woodward, who
is accepted as a career politician ("right out of school into politics") who
"will always find some position to run for."
In such conversations, I make my case that the minimum term for any elected office should be four years -- at the national, state, county, and municipal levels. A 4-year term would spare both the voters and the candidates. After winning a 2-year term, a first-timer needs to work through at least a 1-year learning curve. The second year becomes campaign and fund-raising oriented. The focus changes only a little for incumbents facing their final term. A 4-year minimum term would also reduce the "inexperience" effect of too-many newcomers at one time.
12 Nov 08
Wife Muriel and I caught a Sunday matinee performance of
"Showboat" at Stagecrafters. Delightful way to spend an afternoon: A
racially integrated cast, great singing and dancing, and a rendering of "Ol'
Man River" which elicited shouts of approval from an audience made up
largely of senior citizens. The "We could make believe" duet, though, was
deprived of applause by a practice theater goers experience occasionally,
especially with musicals. The audience isn't sure that it is appropriate to
applaud. It happens most often because the dialogue or action on the stage
begins almost before the last note ends or because the last note is low
and
soft, rather than a reach for high-C.
I have been told by theater people that no singer or actor will ever feel offended by applause. If the applause throws the script's timing off a bit, that's a small price to pay. So, for the remainder of that Sunday's performance, Muriel and I frequently led the applause.
26 Nov 08
Holiday Tree?
Have Jews or Muslims or Hindus or Buddhists or Sikhs traditionally decorated evergreens this time of year? No. Ancient pagans aside, only Christians practice that custom.
It's a Christmas Tree.
Bah, humbug:
It's that time of year again, when
hearing "Merry Christmas" is considered offensive by some.