Don't Worry, Be Happy

In every life we have some trouble

But when you worry you make it double

*          *          *

'Cause when you worry your face will frown

And that will bring everybody down*  

Anyone who has followed my blog, especially the last several posts, knows that I very strongly supported Joe Biden for President.  I felt buoyed the evening before the election as I heard pollsters predicting a ten-point lead for Biden across the nation as well as significant leads in swing states.  Beyond Biden, many were talking about a Blue Wave, or even a Blue Tsunami in which Democrats would take over the Senate and make strong gains in the House of Representatives.

But like many Democrats whose expectations were dashed four years ago, I worried.  Could the pollsters and pundits be wrong again?  Was it possible that tons of “shy” Trump voters would come forward in 2020 to re-elect Trump and elect Republicans to Congress?

I worried, but I tried to convince myself that it was not possible.  Trump won in 2016 by a razor thin margin.  Surely, after four years of lies and misinformation, of insults and bullying, of incompetence in managing the pandemic, those voters who simply did not like Hillary Clinton and did not know Trump four years ago would overwhelmingly vote to turn him out of office.

Then the 2020 election happened.  On election night as the networks began reporting the votes, I felt as if someone had ripped my heart from my chest and stomped on it.  Florida looked promising, but then it slipped away.  Ohio did the same.  Texas followed.  As the evening wore on, Trump won everywhere he had won in 2016 and Biden’s states were the same as those that Hillary had won.  States that I thought Biden would easily flip were reported as too close to call.  In my home state, Pennsylvania, Trump had a huge lead with mail-in ballots not yet counted.  It began to look like a repeat of the heartbreaking election of 2016.  There was no blue wave as Republicans won Senate and House seats that Democrats expected to win.  Needless to say, I did not get much sleep as my worries kept me awake.

But then, over the next several days, states began to be called for Joe Biden – Wisconsin and Michigan were bricks in a “blue wall” being rebuilt.  Biden’s electoral count hit 253, and several states were trending in a positive direction.  Then maddeningly, it seemed to get stuck there.  Each morning I would wake up with hope that Biden would be projected to win another state – Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia – please call one of them, I prayed.

Finally, around 11:30 on Saturday morning, the major networks projected that Joe Biden would win Pennsylvania, giving him 273 electoral votes and the victory.  Nevada followed with another six electoral votes boosting his total to 279, with the possibility of more as votes continued to be counted in Arizona and Georgia.  People were dancing in the streets of Philadelphia and other cities in the United States and around the world.

I felt jubilant as well.  For a few minutes – well, perhaps for a few hours.  Then I began to worry.  Trump was filing lawsuits everywhere.  Sure, everyone seemed to say they had no merit, but I feared some crazy Trump appointed judge might decide to take action to reverse the voters’ decision.  Then Trump’s Republican enablers in Congress offered support to his unsubstantiated notion that there was widespread fraud, and the election results could be overturned. 

But then slowly, so slowly, some Republicans began to raise their voices to support nation over party – Murkowski, Romney, Sasse, Collins, and even Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania.  Joe Biden held a press conference and seemed certain that the results would be accepted, and he would be inaugurated on January 20, 2021.  Every example of alleged fraud put forward by Trump’s people shriveled to nothing in the harsh daylight of increased scrutiny.

Consequently, the high anxiety that has gripped me is slowly beginning to dissipate.  There is still
plenty to be worried about – not whether Joe Biden will take office in January but whether Trump’s actions will result in unnecessary violence if his supporters decide to take out their frustrations on fellow citizens that support the winning candidate. 

But as Bobby McFerrin sings, “In every life we have some trouble, but when you worry you make it double.”  So, I’ll try really hard to listen to his advice.  Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

 

*“Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” by Bobby McFerrin

The Name Game

Three days before the 2020 Presidential Election, I wanted to write about politics.  I wanted to state my support for the candidate I hope will win the election and be our leader for the next four years.  But I could not think of what to say.  We have been so inundated with ads, articles and news stories that I feared anything I might say, has already been said and repeated over and over again.

So, I decided to write about names.  My name is Joseph.  It was my father’s name and his father’s name.  My father was Joseph, Jr., and I sometimes regretted that despite having the same name as my father, I was not Joseph, III, which seemed cool and kind of classy to me as a young boy.  But my parents gave me a middle name, Michael, which did not match my father’s, so I was simply Joseph M. 

My father had strong opinions about names.  His parents were immigrants from what is now Slovakia, who learned to speak heavily accented English.  His children would have solid American names to blend into America’s melting pot.  When my mother was pregnant with my youngest brother, a neighbor suggested that they should name the baby Sean if it turned out to be another boy. 

“Sean?” my father responded.  “I wouldn’t name a dog Sean.”  His boys were Bill, Joe, Rich, Ron, and Bob.  He did not deviate from that line of thinking when it came to middle names – Joseph, Michael, Anthony, James, David – all Biblical and all strongly American names.  No one could taunt his boys because of names that were unusual or oddly ethnic.

Not surprisingly, his opinions carried over to his grandchildren.  “Maura?  I never heard of that name,” he said of his first granddaughter.  But he was willing to give more latitude to girl’s names – Maura, Kristin, and Rachael.  He didn’t live to see Bethany, but I’m sure he would have approved.

And Anna, my daughter’s name?  In Slovak families, girls were either named Mary or Anna.  Between my wife, who is half Slovak and me (fully Slovak), three grandmothers were named Anna, and there were at least three aunts named Mary.  In my mother’s family, both Mary and Anna were taken by older siblings, so she was named Ilona, which she Americanized to Eleanor.  Thus, Anna Ilona was pretty much a home run when we named our daughter.

My father’s grandsons were Nick, Rick, Michael, Joe, Andy, Stephen and Samuel.  Samuel, my son, had the only name my father wasn’t sure about.  A little too ethnic, he thought.  Just be sure to call him Samuel and not Sam, and especially not Sammy, my father recommended.  Of course, attaching Joseph as Samuel’s middle name gave my father reason enough to like it.

I have always liked the name given to me by my parents.  When I first learned that names have meanings, I looked up Joseph and discovered it meant, “he shall add.”  I was somewhat disappointed that the meaning was not more heroic.  It sounded like I would be a mathematician.  But over time, I realized that it meant I might add something to the lives of friends, family and perhaps, the world beyond.  Whether I did that in my thirty years as a lawyer is open to question.  I’ve tried to make up for it during my retired years by volunteering and by writing, which includes this blog.  I hope this blog has added a smile, an escape, or perhaps, something to think about to my loyal readers.

But to return briefly to politics, I am pleased that one of the candidates for President is named Joe.  As common as it is, this country has never had a President with that name.  We have had an Abraham, a Ulysses, a Grover, a Woodrow and even a Barack, but no Joseph. 

That may be reason enough to get my vote if we were playing a name game.  But I feel strongly that this Joseph will add what this country so desperately needs at this time – competence, honesty, compassion, civility – traits sorely lacking in the current White House occupant. 

That is why I cast my vote for a man named Joe.

Politics 2020

I think about politics a lot, but I don’t often write about it on my blog.  I like to think my blog is about bringing people together – not driving them apart. True, my views tend to be on the progressive side of the spectrum.  But my objective is to persuade those who are open to persuasion on issues I believe to be important.  These include climate change and health care.

Not so long ago, many conservative voices recognized the reality of climate change and agreed with the
overwhelming majority of scientists that human activity was driving that change.  Their disagreement with progressives was over the appropriate mechanism for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change.  Conservatives preferred market-based approaches, such as cap and trade, which use economic incentives to reduce carbon emissions.  Progressives preferred the regulatory approach which would impose increasingly stringent emission limits.

Then, around twenty years ago, some in the conservative community adopted a different approach, questioning the science of climate change.  As time went by, those voices became louder culminating in the election of a president who denied what scientists were saying and called climate change a hoax.  As a result, now it is nearly impossible to find a conservative who supports any steps whatsoever to address the impending climate crisis. 

In the 2020 campaign for president, Donald Trump has given no indication that he has changed his mind about climate change being a hoax.  While a National Geographic article states emphatically, “Climate change exacerbates the factors that create perfect fire conditions,” candidate Trump blames raging West coast wildfires on poor management, including the failure to rake leaves in the forest.  In contrast, Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, is proposing a detailed plan “to achieve a 100% clean energy economy and net-zero emissions no later than 2050.”

As with climate change, universal health care coverage was at one time a bipartisan goal.  The main disagreement was over the role of the government in providing that coverage.  In 2006, under Republican Governor Mitt Romney, Massachusetts passed a health care program that provided coverage to nearly all citizens of that Commonwealth.  The Massachusetts program, later dubbed, “Romneycare,” is often cited as the model for the federal Affordable Care Act enacted under President Barack Obama in 2010.  Despite strenuous efforts by Obama to obtain bipartisan support for the ACA, not a single Republican voted for the law’s passage.  Instead, Republicans have tried for a decade since its passage to repeal it.  President Trump is currently asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the law in its entirety.

Among its most popular provisions, the ACA prevents insurance companies from denying coverage to applicants who have a pre-existing condition.  It also provides that young adults can stay on their parents’ health insurance until age 26. Prior to the ACA, young adults were cast off their parents’ insurance as soon as they ceased to be full time students, which could be as early as 18.  The ACA also eliminated yearly and lifetime coverage limits which allowed insurers to refuse to pay claims after a certain dollar amount was exceeded.

Joe Biden has a plan to protect and expand the Affordable Care Act.  Among other things, Biden wants to provide a public insurance option, like Medicare, to compete with coverage being offered by private insurance companies. 

Donald Trump has been teasing the public for nearly four years that he has a health care program far better than what is provided by the ACA.  The Trump plan is always a few days or a few weeks away, but it never seems to arrive.  Whether a Trump health care plan exists is questionable.

There are many reasons to vote for Joe Biden to be our next President rather than re-electing Donald Trump.  Honesty, decency, temperament, and competence quickly come to mind.  But if you want to take positive steps to save the planet from a climate crisis, you must vote for Biden.  And if you care about Americans having access to affordable health care, especially when millions are getting infected and hundreds of thousands are dying from a global pandemic, then you must vote for Joe Biden. 

I am happy to say I have already cast my vote for Joe, and I have received confirmation from my County’s voter services office that my ballot has been received.  If you feel the same way, please vote.  This year there are plenty of options in Pennsylvania and they are described at votespa.com.

I don’t much like to write about politics, but at this juncture, silence is simply not an option.

Fear Itself

Four score and seven years ago, on March 4, 1933 to be exact, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said the following in his first inaugural address:  “[T]he only thing we have to fear is fear itself . . ..” 

America was in the throes of the Great Depression and was looking to Roosevelt for leadership.  FDR
responded by introducing 15 major pieces of legislation during the first 100 days of his administration.  Those legislative proposals were designed to calm the nation’s financial panic and begin the process of economic recovery.

On September 10, 2020, Donald J. Trump invoked FDR’s words to justify lying to the American public about the severity of the novel corona virus.  (Business Insider, September 11, 2020.)  In a recorded interview with investigative reporter and author, Bob Woodward, Trump acknowledged on February 7, 2020 that this virus was “more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”  Then, three days later, according to a timeline published by ABC News, Trump spoke at a political rally in New Hampshire insisting that the virus would “miraculously go away” in April, “when it gets a little warmer.” 

As the virus spread and the death count increased, Trump continued to downplay the nature and severity of the virus, bullying governors to ease lifesaving restrictions. As early as mid-April, when lockdown measures were starting to show progress against the spread of the virus, Trump was sending tweets of “Liberate” to pressure states to open their economies.

Just a few months later, on August 5^th when the COVID death toll was nearly 157,000, the President was pressuring states to open the schools while formulating another outright lie so Americans would “Keep Calm and Carry On.”*  He falsely assured America that “[C]hildren are almost – and I would say almost definitely – but almost immune from this disease . . ..”

Many states and school districts succumbed to this additional pressure from President Trump and opened schools for in-person instruction only to see another surge in cases from this highly contagious disease. 

Now Trump would have us believe that the reason he has downplayed the severity of the virus time and time again is because he does not want Americans to be afraid – to panic.  Yet, ever since he first became involved in politics, Trump has used fear as a tool convince Americans to support him.  Examples include:

• ·       Fear Mexican immigrants, about whom Trump said:  “They’re bringing drugs.  They’re bringing crime.  They’re rapists.”  (Time Magazine, August 31, 2016.)
• ·       Fear Muslims, about whom Trump said:  “You have people coming out of mosques with hatred and death in their eyes.”  (Medium, April 19, 2018.)
• ·       Fear African Americans, especially those in the Black Lives Matter movement, about whom Trump has said:  Black Lives Matter is “a symbol of hate.”  (Politico, July 1, 2020.)
• ·       Fear Low Income Housing:  Trump tweeted that suburban voters will “no longer be bothered or financially hurt” by having low-income housing in their neighborhood after his administration revoked a fair housing rule adopted by the Obama Administration.  (Fox News, July 29, 2020.)
• ·       Fear the Democrats and Joe Biden:  A Trump campaign ad incorrectly stated, “Joe Biden’s supporters are fighting to defund police departments. Violent crime has exploded. You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.” (Washington Post, July 14, 2020.)

The death toll from the corona virus pandemic in America now exceeds 210,000 and shows no signs of abating.  The things Trump suggests we should fear have resulted, at most, in a smattering of injuries and a handful of deaths. 

Four score and seven years ago, FDR described the fear that we should be afraid of – “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” This is exactly the kind of fear that Trump has used his entire political career to get where he is today.  Americans should heed FDR’s warning and reject the fearmongering that Donald Trump is using to garner support for another term.  The only thing we have to fear is four more years of Donald Trump.

 

*Trump quoted this British WWII slogan, during his September 10^th rally to attempt to justify his downplaying of the corona virus threat.

Corrina, Corona Lament

Corrina, Corrina
[Yeah], you’re on my mind
Corrina, Corrina
[Yeah], you’re on my mind
I’m a-sittin down thinkin of you
I just can’t keep from crying *

Corona, Corona.  Yeah, you’re on my mind.  I wake up in the morning and I feel ya’ – hovering over me like a stifling cloud of smoke.  It’s 5:30 in the morning but thinking about you is all I can do.  Yeah, you’re with me all the time. 

Corona, Corona.  Yeah, you’re on my mind.  I get out of bed and brew some coffee.  I pour a cup and switch on the TV.  You’re on every channel.  You’re all they ever talk about – your spread, your numbers, how you’re being managed.  You’d think you were a favorite sports team.  Let’s hear the latest injury report.  You’re down in New York but doing gangbusters in Florida.  You’re heading past 100,000 and that’s only the U.S.

Corona, Corona.  Yeah, you’re on my mind.  It’s a beautiful day, so maybe I’ll take a walk outside.  Better wear a mask, but you’ll know it’s me.  I’ll try to forget you as I tromp around town.  The sidewalks are empty.  I see a few people, but they cross the street to avoid me.  Traffic is light, if there’s any at all.  Stores are closed – like a Sunday afternoon from the 1950s. Seems kind of peaceful.  I stop at a bench.

Corona, Corona.  I’m a sittin’ down thinkin’ of you.  Peaceful’s an illusion.  You allow no peace.  You bring sickness, death, stress, anxiety, depression.  Widespread suffering.  I pray you’ll leave.  But you stay – like a one-night-stand who refuses to go in the light of the next morning.

Corona, Corona.  I’m a sittin’ down thinkin’ of you.  In the evening, I’ll have a drink or three to try to forget you – to ease the pain of your staying with me.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll be greeted with the good news of your dying.  I go to sleep hopeful, but in the morning you’re still here. And I just can’t keep from crying.

*“Corrina, Corrina”, written by Armenter “Bo Carter” Chapman, recorded by Bob Dylan on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, 1963.

Time Has Come Today

Time has come today

*          *          *

Can't put it off another day
I don't care what others say
*          *          *

Time has come today¹

The time has come today for the United States of America to recognize an absolute right to health care.  In his 2020 campaign for the U.S. Presidency, Senator Bernie Sanders has urged America to “join every other major country on earth and guarantee healthcare to all people as a right.”  According to a September 2019 story published by NBC news, 27.5 million Americans or 8.5% of the population had no health insurance in 2018.  The article pointed out that the number of uninsured Americans increased by nearly two million people from the prior year.  One might wonder why, in one of the richest nations on the planet, do so many people not have coverage for health care?

The historic framework for healthcare systems was constructed in the aftermath of the Second World War.  America’s closest ally, England, chose to nationalize the provision of healthcare by establishing the National Health Service.  Though it was a Labour Party government that first established the NHS, that system has enjoyed wide public support by both Labour and Conservative led governments.  America chose a different path.

In contrast to the devastation wrought by the war in Europe, the U.S. mainland was barely touched.  As the American industrial machine geared up to respond to Europe’s need to rebuild, the U.S. labor market tightened.  Mindful of the hyperinflation that crippled Germany after the First World War, the U.S. government imposed wage and price controls.  Unable to bargain for higher wages, unions and employers turned to benefits as a means to attract and retain workers.  The U.S. tax code lent its full support to this development by allowing employers to deduct the cost of providing healthcare, while excluding the value of healthcare coverage from an employee’s income.

This system worked well for the veterans of WWII and their families.  Though initially a benefit of unionized employment, non-unionized companies followed suit to compete for workers who had come to expect healthcare benefits as an essential part of their compensation.  The main problem with a healthcare system tied to employment benefits was what happened when a person was no longer employed or employed in a low-wage job that did not offer healthcare benefits.  In 1965, this problem was addressed for persons retiring from the labor force by the enactment of Medicare.  Medicare established government provided healthcare benefits for those 65 and older. The law also provided government-sponsored healthcare benefits to the poor and disabled through Medicaid.

But for the rest of Americans, employment continued to be the key to accessing healthcare. Then, in the 1980s a number of factors caused America’s employment-based system to begin to unravel.  First, medical costs rose rapidly.  While this was happening, a wrenching recession, combined with fierce competition from Japan and Europe, resulted in American manufacturers closing factories, eliminating jobs and desperately looking for ways to lower costs.  As unemployment soared, employees reluctantly gave back hard-earned benefits.  Where health insurance had been a “free” benefit for more than 30 years, employees were now required to share its cost.  At the same time, as blue collar manufacturing jobs were lost, job gains in retail and service industries often came without healthcare benefits. 

By 2008, over 44 million Americans had no health insurance.  To address this crisis, President Obama and a Congress controlled by Democrats, enacted the Affordable Care Act.  After its provisions went into effect, the ACA reduced the number of uninsured Americans by roughly half.  But the legislation left the American system of employer-provided health insurance intact.  And that insurance was provided by a host of private insurance companies. 

Even though the ACA’s design borrowed heavily from health care models proposed by conservative think tanks, the legislation was passed with virtually no Republican support.  Since its passage, Republicans have tried repeatedly to repeal it.  Currently, the Trump administration is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to declare the law unconstitutional in its entirety.

Meanwhile, the United States is in the throes of a national health crisis where over 1.3 million people have been infected with the COVID-19 virus and over 80,000 have died.  The crisis is nowhere near its endpoint.  Cases will continue to increase; the number of deaths will be well over 100,000. 

Since there is no cure for this highly contagious disease or vaccine to stop its spread, experts have recommended measures such as quarantines and social distancing to slow its expansion.  These measures have had some success, but at a severe economic cost.  In the two months since states in the U.S. began imposing restrictions to contain the virus, the unemployment rate has gone from 3.4% to 14.7% - the highest rate since the Great Depression.  More than 20 million Americans are out of work.  Along with their jobs, these newly unemployed Americans have lost their healthcare.  That is how employer-based health insurance works – no job, no healthcare.

This crisis makes clear why the time has come for America to decouple health insurance from employment.  Every American should have healthcare coverage from cradle to grave, regardless of their employment status.

So, what should that healthcare system look like?  It should be comprehensive.  It should cover all necessary medical costs including vision, dental care and prescription drugs.  It should be available to all, whether young, old, rich, poor, working, unemployed or retired. 

Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for All plan is a good place to start, especially if the Trump Administration succeeds in getting the Supreme Court to kill Obamacare.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could get medical treatment if you were sick or injured and did not have to worry about premiums, deductibles, copays or whether your insurance company would deny coverage for the treatment your doctor prescribed?  That is what the citizens of most other developed countries have.  The time has come today for Americans to demand the same.

¹“Time has Come Today,” written by Willie and Joseph Chambers, originally performed by The Chambers Brothers

Feelin’ Alright?

Seems I've got to have a change of scene
Cause every night I have the strangest dream
*                      *                      *

Ya feelin' alright?
I'm not feelin' too good myself*

“Why do you have all those tabs open on your computer?” my wife asked, looking over my shoulder.

“I’m doing research.”

“Research?  On what?”

“Healthcare.  I want to write a blogpost on healthcare in America.”  I leaned back in my chair and stretched.

“Research sounds so serious.  Just say you’re looking into it.”

I swiveled in my chair to face her.  “Yeah, it’s not going well – too many distractions.  I blame it on the corona virus pandemic.”

“Why don’t you write about something else?” she suggested as she walked to the other side of the desk and sat on a chair facing me.

“Like what?”

“How about the weird dreams you’ve been having?”

“You’re right about that.  I have been having some strange dreams.”  I gazed out the window.  “Last night I dreamed that the world was ending.  At one point, I saw a bright light.  Someone said it was Jesus – the second coming.  I felt so agitated I got out of bed. I didn’t think I would fall back  to sleep.” 

“But you did?”

“Yeah, I did.”  I turned to face her.

“You’ve been dreaming a lot about work too.”

I ran my fingers through my hair.  “Yeah, it’s a recurring dream.  You’d think after being retired for eight years, those would stop.  I’m usually retired in those dreams, but still going to the office.  And I’m getting paid a lot less or nothing at all.  So, in the dream I’m wondering why I bothered to retire if I’m still working and not getting paid.  And, usually I’m thinking that as soon as I finish this project, whatever it is, I can really retire.”

“Do you ever finish the project?”

“No, inevitably I wake up.”  I picked up my mug of coffee and took a sip.  “I’ve also had the play dream within the past few days.”

“Well, play is better than work,”  she said, smiling.

“No, in this dream, I’m in a play and in a lead role.  We’re set to open in a matter of hours, and I haven’t begun to learn my lines.

“That could be embarrassing.”

“Yeah, there is always a series of distractions that occur in this dream that prevent me from studying my lines.  Fortunately, I wake up before the first performance.”  I took another sip of coffee.  

“Anyway, at least I haven’t had the school dream recently.” 

“The school dream?”

“Another of my recurring dreams.  The semester is mostly over when I remember that I’ve never attended or done any work for one of my classes.” 

“So, do you fail the class?”

“No, I mostly worry about what I need to do so I won’t fail the class, but I always wake up before grades are handed out.”

“I think I’m seeing a pattern.  Maybe you ought to see a doctor about getting some meds to reduce the anxiety that probably causes those dreams.”

“That takes me back to healthcare in America.”  I stared at my computer screen.

“You’d better get crackin’ on that research, honey.”

I sighed.  “Yeah, I’ll look into it.”

*  Feelin’ Alright, written by Dave Mason