I Pledge

Posted on 2009-09-07 by David

With all the uproar over the showing of this video to elementary students I have been asked to weigh in on the video and whether it was appropriate to show it to the students. Of course others will have their own opinions and you are free to view the video yourself and let me know if you agree with me, or why you disagree with me. (I have no doubt that different people will disagree with me for very different reasons.)

Let me say right off that I don’t believe that the video should have been shown to children without informing their parents in advance. Parents are always the primary decision-makers with regard to what their children should be exposed to in matters of values and this video was definitely a matter of values. Having said that, I don’t believe that this was a particularly devious or pernicious video (regardless of what Gayle Ruzika believes).

Some who are opposed to the showing of this video believe that it is an attempt to brainwash the children. I doubt this is the case. The message is actually addressed to the President as a show of support. Distributing it among children was meant to encourage them to pledge to do some good of their own choosing.

If the makers of the video intended children as their audience then they have no idea how to go about it. The fast scrolling words and constant movement at the beginning of the video will fail to get any massage to such an audience. On top of that, the pledges in the video will either make no impression or they will confuse a younger audience. If it is as harmless as I am suggesting why would I object to showing it to children who will be either confused or unaffected by it? Because at best it is a waste of school time. Why should my taxes and my childrens time be spent watching something that has no positive value for their education? At worst showing the video opens the door for teachers to take over a parental role in discussing the various pledges as they try to reduce them to a level that could be understood by a 5 or 7 year-old. Again, why should my taxes support that?

If the target audience was for older youth (teenagers and college students) then the video is well made (meaning it would connect with that audience). It still has the problem of promoting some dangerous biases of the creators (confusing service to the president with respect for the president as one example), but it will always be necessary to compensate for the biases of those who are promoting ideas because the promotion of ideas is a values issue by definition – which again is an area where the parents are always primarily responsible until their children reach adulthood.

So here’s my pledge.

I pledge to continue to believe in the good intentions of others, whether they be elected officials or simply socially and politically active individuals and groups, even when I fundamentally disagree with what they are trying to do. I pledge to  be civil no matter how passionately I disagree with anyone and to treat other people with respect and decency in all my interactions. I pledge to fight for what I value and seek to make my country, state, community, and neighborhood a better place. I pledge that no matter how much I may want something I will not make promises that my grandchildren will have to keep in order to achieve it, nor will I ask other to do so.

And I don’t have to go to usaservice.org (which is actually serve.gov) to make or keep that pledge.

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Free and Strong America

Posted on 2009-09-04 by David

I got an invitation yesterday to donate to the Free and Strong America PAC. The stated goal of this organization is to “advance conservative social, fiscal, and foreign policies.” Considering that this is Mitt Romney’s organization I had a bit of a laugh. Romney might advance conservative social policies (depending entirely upon your personal definition of  “conservative”), and could probably be depended on to advance fiscal policies that are conservative to one degree or another, but I doubt that he would recognize a conservative foreign policy if it camped on his doorstep or picketed the central office of the Free and Strong America PAC.

The invitation declared that they could only accomplish their goals with my enthusiastic support. I wonder what they will be able to do with my utter indifference?

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Constitutional Amendment 27

Posted on 2009-09-04 by David

I was fascinated when I learned that the 27th Amendment was included in the original proposal for the Bill of Rights.

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

Unlike the original 10 amendments this one, along with one other was not ratified. Apparently we thought better of that choice after 200 years when Congress was taking on more power and we realized that having one more check on there power would always be a good thing.

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Constitutional Amendment 26

Posted on 2009-09-03 by David

Like the 15th and 19th amendments before it, the 26th Amendment is direct and to the point in extending the right to vote to a previously disenfranchised group.

The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

With three amendments extending the right to vote I think it is always fair to ask – are we done?

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Wash Your Hands

Posted on 2009-09-03 by David

[quote]Dr. Peter Pronovost sought to reduce the incidence of hospital-borne infections by promoting a simple checklist of ICU procedures governing physician hand-washing and other sterilization procedures.

Hospitals implementing Pronovost’s checklist had enjoyed almost instantaneous success, reducing hospital-infection rates by two-thirds within the first three months of its adoption. But many physicians rejected the checklist as an unnecessary and belittling bureaucratic intrusion, and many hospital executives were reluctant to push it on them.

When David Goldhill learned of this very shortly after his own father died from just such an infection he began to investigate the real problems in our health care system. As a grieving son, he wished for a culprit only to find that there really is no bad guy, no incompetent doctors, greedy insurance or drug companies, or any other scapegoat. The problem his research exposed was a system of perverse incentives and unrealistic expectations (like expecting that hundreds of thousands of deaths per year from hospital infections is acceptable or unavoidable and expecting someone else to pick up most of the cost of our care). Like Goldhill, anyone wishing to tackle the issue of health care must wash their hands of pre-programmed political prescriptions and rampant half-truths being promoted by people on all sides of the debate.
Continue reading →

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Constitutional Amendment 25

Posted on 2009-09-02 by David

I’m curious about what prompted Congress to finally address the issue of presidential succession when they did, but there were actually two proposals for the 25th Amendment. One would have given Congress the power to determine the presidential succession by law. The other stipulated the succession in the Constitution itself.

Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

It’s a long amendment because it is meant to cover any contingency but I’d hate to think how political the congressional maneuvering and manipulation could get if the amendment has simply stipulated that Congress could decide. To get an idea just look at the situation in Massachusetts where the (Democratic) legislature made a law that the governor (a Republican at the time) could not appoint a successor if one of their Senate seats (both held by Democrats) became vacant. Now with the death of Senator Kennedy they want to override that law because they have a Democratic governor again.

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Constitutional Amendment 24

Posted on 2009-09-01 by David

I would guess that poll taxes made more sense before the government adopted income taxes but because poll taxes could be abused (and were being abused) the nation used the 24th Amendment to end the practice of poll taxes and to make failure to pay taxes insufficient reason to deny the right to vote.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

Notice that this is the fourth amendment that was at least partially aimed at leveling the field for civic participation of minorities (specifically blacks). Imagine what Congress could have done with “Comprehensive Slavery Reform” rather than the iterative approach we took – we’d probably be even worse off than we are now.

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The Politics of Fear

Posted on 2009-08-28 by David
Fear
photo credit: ag2r

I was listening to NPR this morning on the way to work and they were discussing the use of fear as a political tactic. The story was not what I would consider fair and balance as they asserted that only those who oppose health care reform are making use of the tactic, but one of the people being interviewed about why fear is such an effective tool in blocking legislation stated that fear has the effect of causing us to focus on the problem and divert our energies to addressing the cause of our fear. Of course the implication is that we stop being rational when we are motivated by fear.

As I thought about that it really irked me that they paint people as nothing more than animals – it’s all biology. The truth is that while we are prone to act less than rationally when we are consumed by fear we also have a heightened capacity to think clearly in many high-pressure situations. The key to thinking clearly is that we must not let the fear overwhelm us – let the adrenaline enhance our senses without letting go of our capacity to look at the evidence and make deliberate choices. Continue reading →

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Senator Ted Kennedy

Posted on 2009-08-27 by David

After a constant barrage of news coverage and a few questions from my own acquaintances asking about my views on Ted Kennedy I thought it appropriate to pay this tribute to The Lion of the Senate.

Few men have likely done more to earn the title of “Senator” in the history of our nation. I say this with all sincerity despite the fact that my own political views are very different from those espoused by Ted Kennedy. Of course I did not know him personally, but based on all the stories that are told of his work in the Senate (and I have seen no cause to doubt any of the accounts) he was a rare example of a Senator who truly understood the nature of the work that elected officials in the senate are called upon to do. Comparing him to others who hold or aspire to hold seats in the Senate consistently results in the others looking like pretenders.

He was well known for his ability to hold fast to his principles while still knowing how to work with people who did not agree with those principles. Our own Senator Hatch is a prime example. Despite any personal weaknesses he was willing and able to stand firm against any opposition to a position he held on principle. I believe it is because of his unwavering devotion to principle that I discovered that when he disagreed with Senator Hatch (who is ideologically closer to me than Kennedy is) at least half the time it was Kennedy that I agreed with – it was when the two of them agreed that I was more likely to disagree.

Perhaps the highest tribute I could give would be to share my belief that, in a nation where more people identify themselves as conservative than as liberal it was the sustained effort of this one principled liberal in the senate for the last few decades that has ensured that out government has moved inexorably toward more liberal positions. I hope that I can one day see a conservative Senator who works as hard and holds to his principles as well as Ted Kennedy did for so long.

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Constitutional Amendment 23

Posted on 2009-08-26 by David

Reacting to changes in society that the founders could not have anticipated, the 23rd Amendment provided representation in the electoral college to residents of Washington D.C. in presidential elections.

The District constituting the seat of government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:

A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a state, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

To get an idea of how they might have made this oversight, we should look at what the founders envisioned for the seat of government. They would have anticipated an essentially agrarian society, a federal government with limited power, and therefore a city that would not draw any particularly large number of people. Many of those who would be drawn there would, in their expectations, have been temporary residents – members of Congress and federal employees – who would have the right to cast their votes in their states of residence.

Those who would live their permanently would likely have been farmers. The Constitution stipulates that the capital city not exceed 10 square miles which is 6400 acres. In 1865 freed slaves were initially promised 40 acres and a mule. I think it is safe to assume that, as this was a promise to ex-slaves, 40 acres was not a particularly large amount of land for one family. in other words, if the entire city were populated by farmers it would have a population of no more than 160 families – and representatives in Congress were to represent at least 30,000 people according to the Constitution. It is understandable that they would not think it necessary to give those few people a vote in the electoral college.

In many ways the 23rd Amendment was a half measure. Considering the expanded (and expanding) breadth of congressional authority (especially over Washington D.C.) it is very reasonable for the residents of Washington D.C. to desire a voting representative in the House. In order to achieve that we will need to pass another constitutional amendment.

Perhaps it is because they have been breathing the capital air too long (and because previous attempts to amend the Constitution have been rejected for overreaching by seeking full statehood) the residents of D.C. have spent their energy trying to circumvent the Constitution in their efforts to gain that otherwise well-deserved voting representation.

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