There are those who believe slavery in the United States ended when the Civil War was brought to its end April 9, 1865.
Sadly, those individuals would be wrong. Slavery still exists within these United States, only it’s not nearly as public, and in many ways, it’s more widespread.
The slavery of which we speak is that of human trafficking. According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC), there are some 27 million people enslaved worldwide, many of them in our vicinity. Slave labor ranging from agricultural work to the sex trade, smuggled immigrants and U.S. citizens alike, are held captive and exploited on a daily basis.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States every year, and half of these are children. Of the 2,515 suspected human trafficking incidents reported but eh USDOJ between January 2008 and June 2010, nearly 500 suspects were confirmed and nearly 150 arrests made. Eighty percent of the suspected cases were classified as sex trafficking.
The NHTRC has even more glaring statistics; Between December 2007 and December 2012, more than 72,500 human trafficking incidents were reported, with 41 percent sec trafficking and 20 percent labor trafficking. Women were identified as victims in 85 percent of these cases. And according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, one in every seven endangered runaways were child sex trafficking victims.
This year in Florida, through the end of September the NHTRC received more than 1,100 calls regarding more than 300 human trafficking cases - and this is definitely not every single case out there. Given the exponential growth of massage parlors advertised on Craigslist and Backpage in Palm Beach County, it is safe to say that for every filed report or law enforcement bust of an illegal establishment, multiple operations have opened shop behind closed doors.
In fact, according to the USDOJ, South Florida is the nation’s third-busiest region for sex trafficking, not to mention third in calls to the national hotline (which can be reached at 888-373-7888, by texting “info” or “help” to 233733, and at https://traffickingresourcecenter.org). And Palm Beach County is third in Florida in terms of calls to the NHTRC regarding suspected cases of human trafficking.
The U.S. Department of State offers 20 ways individuals can help fight human trafficking (http://www.state.gov/j/tip/id/help/); these include incorporating human trafficking information in to professional association conferences and trainings, distributing awareness materials, donating food or other needed items to anti-trafficking organizations, students taking action on campuses, and contacting the NHTRC.
Earlier this year, the state passed legislation aimed at trying to bring the runaway train to some sort of stop, with mandated posting of “human trafficking awareness signs” (which include the aforementioned NHTRC hotline and text numbers) be posted in public and private locations statewide. The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2016, requires signs be posted across Florida, from Interstate welcome centers and Florida’s Turnpike rest stops to airports and Tri-Rail train stations, from public libraries and public schools to adult entertainment locations. This includes strip clubs and any business offering massage or bodywork services not owned by a regulated health care profession.
I recognize the new law is not enough. But it’s a start, because information - real, hard, public information - is crucial when dealing with a below-the-radar crime such as human trafficking. Public transportation signage tells people from all walks of life: Here’s someone you can call, anonymously, without fear of reprisal.
I encourage you, as the new year begins, to make a resolution: to help end slavery of all types in the United States.
History will be the ultimate judge of last weekend’s historic Paris Agreement, the pact that commits 196 nationsto work together in an attempt to limit climate change and stem the continued rise of greenhouse gas emissions.
So close, and yet so far.
That’s my takeaway from last weekend’s historic Paris Agreement, the pact that commits 196 nations to worktogether in an attempt to limit global warming and preventing the rise of greenhouse gas emissions.
The pact, adopted after 13 days of intense bargaining in France, puts the world’s nations on a course that changesthe way energy is produced and consumed, with countries gradually reducing their reliance on fossil fuels infavor of cleaner forms of energy.
The positives are that finally - FINALLY - a large percentage of the world’s leaders have figured out there is aserious problem regarding climate change and, more importantly, have agreed to actually do something to savethe planet’s future. The fact that 196 nations signed off on the proposal is a rare display of universal agreementon a topic that has been a political football in many nations, including the United States.
The PA binds pledges by individual nations to cut or reduce emissions from fossil-fuel burning. And itestablished a framework of rules which provide for both monitoring and verification, as well as financial andtechnical assistance for developing countries. All 196 nations are obligated to limit their emissions to relativelysafe levels, of 2 degrees Celsius with an aspiration of 1.5 degrees Celsius, with regular evaluations to ensurethese commitments can be increased in line with scientific advice. Additionally, funding will be provided topoorer nations, so they can work effectively to reduce emissions and deal better with the effects of extremeweather. Further, nations impacted by climate-related disasters will gain urgent aid.
It is also a major diplomatic achievement for President Barack Obama and his administration. Obama has madeglobal warming a key provision of his political legacy, all the while facing angry and vocal opposition frommany Republicans in the legislature, who take umbrage with the scientific community’s position that Earth’srecent warming is directly linked to man-made pollution.
However - there’s always a “however” or two when analyzing a major agreement such as the PA - there are someissues which we hope are resolved as countries implement the proposal. First, poor countries are concerned themoney provided to them will not be nearly enough to protect them. Without proper funding, it is probable someof these nations will opt out, hampering the pact’s implementation.
The agreement does not take effect until 2020. True, it takes nations some time to put in place their own steps tobring about a proposal of this magnitude, but because not all of the agreement is legally binding (anotherconcern), some future governments could yet renege on their commitments. A four-year window seems a bit longto us.
The reason it is not legally binding is because that way, President Obama does not have to bring the agreementbefore the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate for approval. According to Secretary of State John Kerry, bindinglegal requirements would have made the Paris agreement a treaty, mandating approval from two-thirds of theSenate.
Further, we in southeast Florida have some regional concerns as well, mostly stemming from that sametimeframe. As we noted in August, some 2.4 million people and 1.3 million homes in Florida sit within 4 feet ofthe local high tide line. Sea level rise is more than doubling the risk of a storm surge at this level in South Floridaby 2030. And taxpayers are already paying the price for climate change as salt water pushes through porousbedrock into coastal drinking-water supplies, and rivers and canals choked by heavy rains have a harder timedraining into the ocean.
We need action now. I'm hoping the PA brings about the changes needed ... and equally hoping it’s not toolittle, too late.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
This quote, attributed to philosopher George Santayana, speaks volumes when looking at a variety of recent events - the international terrorist attack in Paris; the domestic terrorist attacks in San Bernadino and Colorado Springs; the in-store shopper-on-shopper attacks on Black Friday. We, as a nation have lost our compass; we, as a nation, seem not to remember the past.
Given not only these stories, but the fact that today is the 74th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, I am hopeful maybe we, as a nation, can get our collective act together.
December 7, 1941, is indeed a day which has lived in infamy, as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt informed a stunned nation after the incident that dragged the United States into World War II. The men and women who fought that war were later dubbed “The Greatest Generation” - a moniker which is both accurate and seemingly shy of the mark simultaneously. Those brave individuals helped the Allied forces win that war, save the world from tyranny, and build an economic powerhouse that helped fulfill the American dream for millions.
Our WWII veterans are passing into history, and we would do well to learn from them, to heed the lessons they learned in such dire circumstances. After all, the youngest of the survivors are in their early 90s now. Our direct connection to that day will soon flicker out. Yet we will still remember, to pay respect to sacrifice, to honor bravery, to note the dear price of peace.
“Remember Pearl Harbor” was a ringing call to battle that emanated across the United States shortly after the surprise attack in the Pacific. The rallying cry helped keep fresh the nation’s shock and rage, and summoned the unity needed to win a long, exhausting war. And we are forever proud of the work they did in both Europe and the Pacific Theater.
But sadly, we must remember Pearl Harbor for another reason.
Shortly after the attack, the United States scapegoated more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans in an emotionally-based example of racial profiling, targeting patriotic Americans because of the way they looked. Removed from their homes, these citizens were placed in relocation camps for the duration of the war.
It was a time when emotions trumped Constitutional rights, when America’s commitment to human rights was tested, and when the country failed. And it was a mistake that - in the aftermath - we swore we would never make again.
Today, Japan is a democracy and a close ally, proof that extremism and historic grievances can be overcome. But the nation’s current swell of anti-Muslim dialogue has me wondering if we really have learned. And the continued mass shootings by unhinged Americans on a seemingly daily basis also have me questioning what, if anything, we have learned from the past.
Historically, there is no such thing as a recurring drama. But it is also a fact that Santayana’s words ring true: history repeats similar mistakes. This is because humans are often incapable of controlling their desires, political ambitions and technology. Hopefully, we as a people can do better, starting with today's anniversary.
There's a war out there. But while the religious right is up in arms about people saying “happy holidays” and claims there’s a “War on Christmas,” they’re shooting wide of the mark.
The real battle is being fought on Thanksgiving. Or, rather, the meaning of Thanksgiving.
And we’re not even getting into the commercialization of the holiday weekend, the battle over whether individuals should work on Thanksgiving Day, or even why football fans have to suffer watching the hapless Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys host gridiron contests.
No, my concern over what Thanksgiving is supposed to represent stems from the political battle over Syrian refugees, which was suddenly heightened this month when ISIS terrorists wreaked havoc on Paris, Beirut, and Kenya, killing hundreds and strengthening the cry for nations such as the United States to take in Syria’s tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
Instead, what we are seeing is a very public display of fear mongering by politicians seeking to prevent said refugees from finding a home in a country build on the principles of taking in the wretched refuse of the world. Numerous Republican governors and presidential candidates have come out en masse with strongly-worded NIMBY messages to President Barack Obama, despite there being no legal means for states to prevent said refugees from residing within their borders.
It is a hypocrisy the United States is eloquently and expertly adept at showing to the world.
In the late 1800s, it was Native Americans whose lands were raided by military forces and herded into reservations,
In the late 1930s, it was European Jews who were denied entry into the United States due to religious bigotry, despite having allowed thousands of immigrants from all over Europe and Asia prior to the prelude to World War II and the execution of 11 million (more than half of whom were Jews) in concentration camps.
In the early 1940s, it was Japanese-Americans who were kicked off their lawfully-owned land and forced into internment camps because of unjustified fears following the attacks on Pearl Harbor.
And so on, and so on, and so on.
This is not what our nation is supposed to stand for. And while this stance would be appalling any time of the year, it seems especially glaring as we enter the holiday season.
Thanksgiving Day is supposed to be a day of thanks, where Americans are reminded of the bounty of treasures that is a part of our lives. But Thanksgiving is also a call to action. It is vital for us to remember the word thanksgiving is composed of two words: thanks and giving.We are reminded to give thanks and to share and give - to share our economic and material wealth, and to share also our time and talents with other people who could use our help. Regardless of race, color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, or residency status.
It’s time for this nation to do more than talk the talk. We need to walk the walk.
Last week, President Barack Obama dramatically shifted his Syria policy by announcing he would station around 50 Special Operations troops in the war-plagued country, ostensibly to "advise and assist" Kurdish and Arab fighters battling ISIS.
Whether this number represents too many (as many liberals believe) or too few (as is the belief among conservatives), what cannot be disputed is this adds to the number of United States military who will be actively involved in some form of operation overseas.
Today - November 11 - is Veterans Day, where we thank all men and women who have served honorably in the military during times of war and peace. And while with each passing year the surviving veterans of the Greatest Generation become a little thinner, and memories of their heroism fade a little deeper into history, the current generation is asked by our government to try and fill in those numbers.
Being in the military is for the most part a thankless job. But today is a day we, as citizens, can and should thank them loudly and strongly.
Today, these men and women - some tens of thousands of other Americans who have served in the United States Armed Forces, will be celebrated in Veterans Day parades in big cities and small towns. This includes recent graduates of area high schools who have chosen to don the uniform instead of attending local community colleges or out-of-state universities. It includes personnel who have returned home and found positions in the private and public sector. It includes those who are hoping to travel to Washington, D.C. on an upcoming Honor Flight, and those who may have served the nation without having ever been called into action in a hot zone.
There will sadly come a day not so long from now when we will read a news story marking the death of the last World War II veteran. A person of military age the day of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor (and the United States’ entry into WWII) is now more than 90 years old. According to statistics released by the Veteran’s Administration, our World War II veterans are dying at a rate of nearly 500 a day. This means there are only approximately 855,000 veterans remaining of the 16 million who served our nation in World War II (and less than 80,000 in Florida); by 2036, it is estimated there will be no living veterans of World War II left to recount their experiences.
Time indeed passes quickly. Today - indeed, on every day - let us show our gratitude and respect for their service, and the service of all those who have followed.
The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.
- Qui-Gon Jinn, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Congratulations, Golden Tate. You managed to alienate the Detroit Lions fan base with your insipid comments after Sunday's horrendous display of football even more than Detroit's horrendous display of football managed to do ... and that's quite an accomplishment.
"Today I felt like at times our fan base kind of turned their back on us," Tate said in yesterday's post-game interviews following the Arizona Cardinals' 42-17 shellacking of the Pontiac Pussycats, dropping the Honolulu Blue and Silver to a depressing 0-5 and increasing the odds of yet another Owen 16 season in the Motor City. Personally, after the way this year has started, I'm pulling for a bookend to join the 2008 winless season. Y'awl can do this, Lions!
Granted, Tate's comments were sandwiched between compliments of the fan base ("I think our fans are amazing, and they've been patient for a long time" was one side of the Oreo; "We have a lot of confidence in our fan base, and we can't do this without our fan base" was the other side). But it was the creamy white "blame the fans" filling which got the bulk of the attention, and rightfully so.
Look, Golden - we understand you don't have a real grasp of the painful and seemingly pathetic (and, to a degree, sadomasochistic) kind of love-hate relationship Detroit's fans have with their allegedly professional football franchise. You're from Tennessee, played college ball at Notre Dame, and then went off to the Seattle Seahawks, even being part of a Super Bowl-winning team before coming to Detroit.
We even understand your frustration, being part of the dysfunctional world that is Lions Football. Trust us, we've been there/done that, as fans, for damn near 60 years - longer than I've been on this planet.
But if you're going to lash out at the fan base - who collectively are incredibly and overly sensitive to being thrown under the proverbial bus by members of their grossly-overpaid weekend entertainment, especially given the tons of dead presidents Detroiters have spent to support this historic mess of a franchise - then we, collectively, are going to take your comments and tell you to shove them where the sun don't shine. And having gone from just one horribly-blown call in Dallas away from actually winning a second playoff game since the mid-1950s last season, to this unwatchable and boring - yes, boring - collection of turnovers, penalties, and stupidity, just adds salt to the wound.
"Our fan base kind of turned their backs on us."
You know what? That stings.
I'm looking at the box score, which is no easier to digest than what I witnessed while eating at Duffy's of Greenacres and watching the massacre on the big screen. We, the fans, didn't commit six turnovers. We, the fans, didn't get hit with nine stupid penalties. We, the fans, didn't blow an early 7-0 lead by allowing 35 unanswered points against Arizona.
ARIZONA! Owned by that sorry excuse of a human being Bill Bidwell!
How bad are things now? You guys are making the 2015 Detroit Tigers' last-place American League East finish look like a sports championship level team. And in case you didn't catch it, the Tigers' season was horrid in infinite ways.
You're making an upcoming lost cause disguised as a Detroit Pistons campaign look like a refreshingly wonderful change of pace.
{At least we have the Detroit Red Wings to be thankful for!}
Jar-Jar Tate, the fans you alienated have suffered through every possible type of professional football hell for the better part of six decades. You want "creative ways to lose"? The Lions defined this perfectly, and since then have redefined it on a yearly (sometimes multiple times yearly) basis. To wit:
The Lions are 1-11 in post-season play since 1958.
They've won roughly 40 percent of their games since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.
They've lost on a game-ending 63-yard field goal by New Orleans' Tom Dempsey.
They've lost when quarterback Dan Orlovsky stepped out of the end zone for a safety against Minnesota, and when Packers QB Matt Flynn set Green Bay franchise records with 480 yards passing and six touchdowns ... as a backup.
They've lost when long snapper Don Muhlbach botched his job after a long, dramatic touchdown drive against the Vikings, and when coach Marty Mornhinweg chose which side of the field he wanted to defend (rather than take the ball) to start overtime in Chicago.
They've lost when the refs picked up a pass interference flag in Dallas, and when the refs screwed up by not calling an intentional bat out of the end zone last week in Seattle, and because of the Calvin Johnson rule to Chicago.
They've lost by perhaps the most irrational football score ever (5-0) to Dallas in 1970.
They've lost when they attempted a fake punt from their own 12-yard-line against New Orleans (and I wrote about this in 1988, while in my last semester of undergraduate coursework at Central Michigan University).
They've had perhaps the greatest running back in the history of the game, Barry Sanders, retire after 10 seasons, days before training camp opened, because he was sick of losing all the damn time.
They've had Matt Millen, Andre Ware, Charlie Rogers, Ikaika Alama-Francis, Stockar McDougle, Reggie Rogers, Jeff Komlo, the Pontiac Silverdome, and a zillion other shades of hopelessly bad associated with the Ford Football Franchise.
Now, we recognize this is an epic failure on multiple levels. Just as no one individual would receive credit if Detroit actually won (a) a division, or (b) a playoff game, or (c) a football championship, this year's steaming pile of fecal matter is a team effort. To turn Howard Jones on his back, "Everybody is to blame." We have a coddled, run-of-the-mill quarterback who hasn't a clue how to GPS his passes to one of the elite receivers in the game (that would be Megatron, not you). We have more turnovers than Pepperidge Farms. More yellow flags than the United Nations. More vanilla, predictable plays called from the sidelines. The most passive, clueless ownership of any sports franchise in North America.
And yes, it would be easy to point at the loss of Ndamukong Suh on the defensive side of the ball, except his year (so far) in Miami has been amazingly worse than what we are seeing in Detroit.
There are cries for Martha Ford to sell the team, just as there were cries for her late husband William Clay Ford to do so; that ain't gonna happen. We are saddled with "Found On Road Dead" as a football franchise, barring some weird alignment of planets that Neil deGrasse Tyson has yet to announce, for much of the foreseeable future. Matthew Stafford (salary) is not going anywhere. Kicking front office brains Martin Mayhew and Tom Lewand out the door would be nice, but the Ford family is known for loyalty to lousy football management, so we're probably stuck with them as well.
The one change I see on the immediate horizon is the letting go of offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, but even that is too late to salvage the season.
Meanwhile, here's my suggestion to Tate and the men who suit up to represent the Motor City and southeast Michigan on football Sundays: Shut the hell up. Do your damn job. And maybe - just maybe - we'll have your back.
Last week, nearly 30 new state laws went into effect in Florida, including the outlawing of “sexual cyberharassment,” commonly known as “revenge porn,” which is when someone posts an explicit image of another online without permission.
The law, which passed both the state House and Senate virtually unanimously in the spring (only two legislators in each chamber voted against the measure), defines sexual cyberharassment as “publish(ing) a sexually explicit image of a person that contains or conveys personal identification information … without the person’s consent, for no legitimate purpose, with the intent of causing substantial emotional distress to the person.”
Violators could face a first-degree misdemeanor charge, or up to a year in jail; repeat offenders could be socked with a third-degree felony, which carries a maximum five years in prison.
Twenty-six states now have some form of law regarding “revenge porn.” And while I applaud the crackdown on this particular heinous act by both Republicans and Democrats, I am a bit concerned about how effective it will be, and whether it will hold up in our courts. The new law amended an existing state statute to permit law enforcement officers to arrest individuals without a warrant when there is probable cause to believe the suspect has committed sexual cyberharassment. Additionally, the law permits a search warrant to be issued for a private dwelling if evidence relevant to proving sexual cyberharassment is contained therein.
My concerns revolve around the United States Constitution, specifically that pesky First Amendment and that equally troublesome Fourth Amendment, and how these two measures could impact how this particular legislation stands up when court cases are being filed and prosecuted. Conviction is made difficult by the First Amendment, which states that "Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” Today, this includes the Internet; to place restrictions on what individuals can post online to us would be a clear violation of the First Amendment; speech on the Internet has full First Amendment protection.
The Fourth Amendment is the part of the Bill of Rights that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. To me, the key word here is “warrant;” as I noted two paragraphs ago, under the new Florida law law enforcement officers do not need to secure a warrant in advance to arrest individuals suspected of sexual cyberharassment. Under the Fourth Amendment, search and seizure - including arrest - should be limited in scope according to specific information supplied to the issuing court; without a warrant, there is no check-and-balance taking place by the justice system.
The constitutionality of this type of legislation is why some states’ revenge porn laws have been halted by federal courts. For example, Arizona’s law had made it a felony to "disclose, display, distribute, publish, advertise, or offer" an image of a nude person without that individual’s consent. However, it was so overly broad, it could have punished a wide range of constitutionally protected communication, including "a library lending a photo book about breast feeding to a new mother, a newspaper publishing pictures of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison, or a newsweekly running a story about a local art show," according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
I agree that sexual cyberharassment is a bad thing. I applaud our elected officials for trying to do something about it. And I hope my assessment is wrong. But I do have concerns Florida’s leaders will need to try, try again on this type of legislation.
"The problem with internet quotes is that you cant always depend on their accuracy"
- Abraham Lincoln, 1864
This snarky comment has been floating around cyberspace for several years. And yet, with every passing day, it seems to be even more a reliable indicator of where we are as a technology-driven communications society.
Today, we see this happening in at least two high-profile situations: on social media like Facebook, where a variety of hoaxes are posted and accepted as the gospel by thousands of users; and the 2016 presidential campaign, where despite the media’s ability to respond to less-than-factual comments more quickly than in years past.
One variation of this year’s Facebook hoax - yes, it’s an annual tradition, like Halloween and Santa Claus and hurricane season in Florida - reads, in part: “Better safe then sorry! Now it's official! It has been published in the media. Facebook has just released the entry price: $5.99 to keep the subscription of your status to be set to ‘private.’ If you paste this message on your page, it will be offered free (paste not share) if not tomorrow, all your posts can become public. Even the messages that have been deleted or the photos not allowed.”
The hoax includes a fictitious news report from a “Channel 13 News,” as well as various purported federal laws and the Rome Statute, as further “proof” of the post’s “legitimacy.”
Savvy Facebook users end up posting status updates mocking the hoax, but it still happens like clockwork.
Then there’s the political arena. Despite fact-checking sites like PolitiFact (http://www.politifact.com/), which do their best to determine which political comments are “True” (Mike Huckabee’s claim that six of the 10 wealthiest U.S. counties surround Washington, D.C.) and which achieve “Pants on Fire” status (example: Donald Trump’s claim this week that unemployment hit 42%), too often once less-than-honest comments are made, it is impossible to fully reverse the damage. Too often, individuals on either side of the political aisle accept their chosen (or, at least, preferred) leader’s words as the Gospel, and are reluctant to admit anything inaccurate was stated. And while individuals with opposing viewpoints howl at the moon about the situation, rarely does it impact what has transpired.
We can also see such questionable use of facts surrounding the current Planned Parenthood saga, where individuals on each side of the politically-charged topic have the ability to pick and choose which pieces of information to rally around and which to ignore. In fact, take any “hot button” topic coming out of Washington, D.C. these days - Benghazi, gay rights, immigration reform, public education, the national debt, legalization of drugs, Syrian refugees - and this phenomenon will occur.
Fans of The Colbert Report can point to the October 17, 2005 pilot episode, where the host coined the word “truthiness,” described as a quality characterizing a "truth" that a person making an argument or assertion claims to know intuitively "from the gut" or because it "feels right" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts. Nearly 10 years later, the word - and definition - still stand as a modern conveyance of the phrase “don’t let your facts get in the way of my opinion.”
Honest Abe would be proud to know his Internet quote is more honest than many of the comments it describes.
Two down, and - break out the popcorn! - infinitely more to go.
That’s where we, the people, stand in terms of the various concoctions the Republican Party, Democratic Party, and various media, have stirred up in the cauldron of silliness that are the 2016 Presidential (and, eventually, Vice Presidential) debates.
To date, a pair - OK, technically four - GOP “debates” has played out for us on television. Consider them the “appetizers” of the debate season; between October and March, 15 additional live sparring matches are scheduled (nine between the various Republican candidates, six between Democrats), plus four next fall (three presidential, one vice presidential).
The purpose of these forums is purportedly to allow voters to gain valuable information about each of the hopefuls seeking to be Commander-in-Chief after President Barack Obama’s second term expires in January 2017. This is an admirable quest; we would love to learn far more detailed ideas about dealing with important topics ranging from the economy to ISIS, health care to education, immigration to climate change.
But what has been presented thus far has been anything but enlightening, at least in terms of viable, legitimate issues we believe should be openly discussed. What has been given to us has been less than satisfying in terms of solutions to difficult problems we face in our United States.
In a 48-page report released in advance of the 2016 election season, the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center working group laid out a series of suggestions to improve presidential debates. Part of the problem, according to group organizer Kathleen Hall Jamieson, is with the way the media both sets up these forums and lets them play out.
“Right now, reporters are in a very difficult situation, because they’re trying to be traditional reporters and they are trying to moderate a debate,” Jamieson said. “And as a result, we get joint press conferences. We’re not really getting the debate. And if the moderator tries to follow up, the moderator is perceived to be unfair and sometimes the moderator is unfair.”
Thus, these “debates” are not really debates. This is because true debates are more formalized, with a more-structured timeframe. And there would not be a moderator.
Instead, we are given public platforms - open forums where the various talking heads are for the most part preaching from the same philosophical background to the same eager choir. To be a legitimate debate, the various speakers should be taking up different positions on the same questions, not responding to questions tailored to each candidate individually.
The group also suggested eliminating the live audience as part of the presentation. “As our research shows, if you have an audience that cheers or jeers or engages in any kind of heckling behavior, you can affect the outcome of the debate,” Jameson said.
I encourage the Commission on Presidential Debates to take the Annenberg study seriously, as a way to try and bring some much-needed legitimacy to the presidential debate model. I also urge the Commission to boldly go where many area high schools have, and are, going - that is, review the format incorporated by area high school debate programs, which offer students taking opposite sides on a central question and presenting sound logic, theory and empirical evidence to back up their positions. Talk to individuals with the National Speech and Debate Association, the nation’s largest high school debate organization. Talk to debate coaches at area high schools. Or debate coaches at any schools with debate programs. Or even some of the most experienced debaters on these squads. And leave the popcorn behind.
It has been 5,113 days since four commercial airliners departing from east coast airports, fueled for flights to California, were hijacked. With jet fuel capacities of nearly 24,000 U.S. gallons (144,000 pounds), each aircraft effectively became an incendiary guided missile.
Has it really been 14 years?
The irony (well, one of the ironies in today’s world) is that for virtually any child not in high school, 9/11 isn’t even a distant memory anymore; it was an event that changed the world before they even entered the world. And there are plenty of high school students who were either born after 9/11 or have virtually no recollection of that date.
Heck, even this year’s college freshmen and sophomore classes were too young then to have much understanding of what had occurred. And it seems likely that before long, 9/11 will be noted purely as a historic moment, much like the Dec. 7 anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Now, it’s true there are regular reminders about that awful day; whether it be passing through security at an airport, discussing the sad state of affairs Afghanistan and Iraq veterans deal with in terms of PTSD and health care, or driving past the remains of the Twin Towers planted outside of Wellington Village Hall. Less visibly, millions of security cameras track your movements, and the government has amassed vast powers to snoop on you through post-9/11 legislation like the USA Patriot Act.
Despite this, time has lessened the impact we feel on a daily basis. The sense of fear that gripped our nation in the immediate days and weeks following the attack has dissipated, and terrorism - while still out there as a threat - has taken a back seat to the economy and other issues in the current presidential campaign. Indeed, many people believe Sept. 11 may now be the safest day to fly, given the attention airport security receives.
Relaxing our senses is a natural part of humanity, but it can be a bit scary. Terrorism should not be relegated to an afterthought. Of the many things done in the United States since 9/11, some were intelligent (such as reinforcing cockpit doors on jetliners), others not so much (the much-mocked and ignored color-coded alert system).
But after 14 years, it's time to reassess the threat and recalibrate the responses. To a large degree, the threat has evolved. It might not be as organized as when, say, Osama bin Laden was in charge of al-Qaeda, but it’s still out there, and as our attend span wanes and we follow events such as the Syrian crisis, we pay less attention to the threat that is always out there.
Dealing with terrorism is a difficult job. Our security forces are always on the defense, hoping we can gain knowledge of our enemies’ plans. But those plans can be shrouded in deception, and sometimes we don’t know what those plans are, or how seriously we should consider them. The questions remain: who, when, what?
And we hope not to be taken by surprise, or to react too slowly to make a difference.
We are now in Day 5 of Kim Davis Held Hostage, the daily soap opera cleverly disguised as Christian ideology at a standstill (or something like that).
If you're not familiar with this story, WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN THE PAST TWO MONTHS? On June 26, the Supreme Court of the United States, in a 5-4 landmark decision (Obergefell v. Hodges), ruled that same-gender couples should be afforded the same opportunity to be miserable in marriage as "traditional" male-female couples, because the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution (i.e., the set of rules which serve as the legal backbone to freaking govern this nation) forbids states from denying any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Which basically means states cannot discriminate against anyone seeking a marriage license, regardless of who they choose to marry.
Well, Rowan County, Kentucky, Clerk Kim Davis is rotting in jail for violating a court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Faced with the SCOTUS ruling, Davis - an Apostolic Christian - directed her office to stop providing marriage licenses to any applicants, because she believes her religious beliefs forbid her from issuing said licenses to same-gender applicants. The jailing took place after she went through a number of legal challenges (all denied) basically insisting she be given special treatment under the law, so she can deny equal treatment to people living in her jurisdiction.
Conservative advocates have rallied behind Davis, arguing her religious freedom is being violated. Republicans (such as GOP presidential candidates Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee, among others), claim she should ignore the SCOTUS ruling because her religious beliefs are far more important than treating everyone equally. This despite the rampant hypocrisy in her pre-Apostolic Christian life (prior to being born-again, Davis was divorced three times, married four times, and had an affair somewhere in there which bore two children). And the irony that Davis is a Democrat being supported by Republicans while being thrown under the bus by the Westboro Baptist Church, of all groups, due to her own alleged pre-born-again personal transgressions before God.)
Others argue when she took office in November, the SCOTUS ruling hadn't taken effect (true), so she shouldn't be bound to it (not so true). Except ... Davis isn’t self-employed. She doesn’t get to revise her own job description on-the-fly. Only her employers retain that discretion; her employers happen to be the people of Rowan County, Kentucky. You know - the people who pay her salary, who she represents, who she works for.
And this is part of what is so galling to me. Supporters of Davis have tossed about comments like, "Well, same-sex couples can always go to another county to get married; they don't have to do it here." Except, if they live in Rowan County - if their taxes pay for services rendered in Rowan County - then they have the right to use the services for which they have paid, provided by the employees for which they provide salaries and benefits.
It's really that simple.
To me, the fact the SCOTUS had not made its ruling when she took office is a non-issue and irrelevant. Laws - and interpretation of laws - change all the time. Her role is as a public employee, who has sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States as part of her job duties. That, in and of itself, means that she is willfully choosing not to do her job, as expected by the people residing in her jurisdiction - regardless of race, color, creed, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation. She basically has, IMHO (and I obviously do not stand alone on this), two choices:
resign, so someone else can actually do the job based on what its requirements are; or
follow the 14th Amendment, as interpreted by the SCOTUS, and not discriminate against anyone, even if she has a religious opposition.
Honestly, either of these options are fine with me. If she resigns, and gains employment in an arena which suits her both personally and religiously, all the power to her. Go with God, and be strong! If she does her job, and doesn't force state-sanctioned discrimination on residents in her county through her own personal choice to do so, that's cool, too. And if she chooses to neither resign nor follow the law, then welcome to the Rowan County Hilton! Hope you enjoy your stay!
While the whole commentary regarding her four marriages and infidelity and such have been tossed around (by many, including me) as a sign of hypocrisy, this is essentially side-show material. Even if she is throwing stones here. If this were a high school Student Congress speech, I'd stay away from that whole avenue and stick with the facts, the primary one being: the due process clause of the 14th Amendment extends to "certain personal choices central to individual dignity and autonomy, including intimate choices that define personal identity and beliefs."
Years ago, long before the SCOTUS same-gender marriage ruling, I was asked the question of whether I supported gay marriage. My response was two-part: (a) I don't believe the state should have any role in marriage whatsoever, since it's purportedly a religious ceremony, and that whole "church and state" thing seems to get in the way - why is the state making money by charging couples for marriage licenses? (b) But, if the state IS going to be involved with marriage, then same-gender couples should be afforded the same opportunity of marriage as female-male couples.
Quite frankly, the whole "Christianization" of this issue appalls me. I'm Jewish; I have plenty of friends and family that are not of any form of Christian belief - Jewish, Muslim, atheist, Hindu, whatever. IF WE ARE DENIED EQUAL OPPORTUNITY UNDER THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES AS OTHERS BECAUSE A GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE'S RELIGIOUS BELIEFS INTERFERE WITH HIS OR HER ABILITY TO DO HIS OR HER JOB, THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY! Davis is in jail because she has the audacity to use her religion as a way of discriminating against citizens in her political jurisdiction, and ignored a federal order to do her job. She is a jailed welfare queen - getting paid (even while in jail) her $80,000-a-year salary (plus benefits) for choosing not to do her job. No more, no less. I am a public high school teacher. My salary and benefits are taxpayer-provided. I am a servant of the people, some of whom have children in my classroom, many of whom do not. It doesn't matter; my position is that of the public trust. I can't just decide, "Oh, teaching The Canterbury Tales goes against my religious code, so I'm not going to teach it to my English class." Or, better yet, "I refuse to teach Muslim students because [list some horribly bad analogy here about Muslims and Jews not getting along for thousands of years and all the killings and stuff that's been happening in the Middle East for decades]." If I did that, guess what? I'd be suspended immediately and fired in the blink of an eye, for insubordination and refusing to do my job. And I'd be labeled a religious extremist and a bigot.
There is no protection under the law - any law - for religious extremists in government positions (whether elected, appointed, or hired) to impose their personal beliefs on the people they have sworn to serve. This applies to public high school teachers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, and elected officials - and many more who fall under this umbrella. To the contrary, all of these public individuals are required to obey the laws, regardless of their personal preferences. All the laws, not just the ones they cherry-pick. And you don't get to hold other peoples' lives hostage while imposing your warped version of Christian Sharia Law.
You are trying to serve two masters, Kim Davis - your God, and your government - but it looks like you have a choice on which master to serve. I suggest you choose wisely.
If Labor Day didn'talready exist - that is, if it hadn’t become a federal holiday in 1894, or any time since then - I'd be hard pressed to suggest it would be a concept in today’s United States.
Such is the state of affairs in today’s Washington, D.C. and in today’s union universe.
Yes, 129 years since President Grover Cleveland gave his stand of approval, much has changed in the world and the nation - including the rise, apex, and gradual decline of organized labor. The brainchild of one Peter McGuire, a carpenter and union leader, Labor Day was initially a way to pay tribute to the worker, who toiled long hours for minimal pay in often dangerous conditions.
The union helped change many things about employer-employee relations, many for the good of both parties. For example, unions gave us the weekend; in 1870, the average workweek for most Americans was 61 hours (almost double what most Americans work now). By 1937, labor actions (specifically, strikes demanding shorter workweeks so Americans could be home with loved ones instead of constantly toiling for their employers with minimal leisure time) created enough political momentum to pass the Fair Labor Standards Act, which helped create a federal framework for a shorter workweek that included room for leisure time.
Unions also helped end child labor. The very first American Federation of Labor national conventionin 1881 passed a resolution calling on states to ban children under 14 from working long hours in less-than-stellar conditions. The previously-noted Fair Labor Standards Act regulated child labor on the federal level for the first time.
Further, organized labor resulted in fair wages and relative income equality. When most Americans belonged to a union - generally, the 1940’s and 1950’s - income inequality in the U.S. was at its lowest point in the history of the country. Nowadays? Not so much; there is a huge divide between the top and bottom of the economic spectrum. The decline in the middle class’s share of the national income parallels the relative decline of unions.
Today, the union is being attacked on all sides. States such as Wisconsin and Michigan, once considered unbreakable union states, are now right-to-work. They joined Florida, which has been a right-to-work state since 1944, in having less-effective unions than previously. According to The Washington Post, in right-to-work states, unions don’t have the same power they do in other states, mostly because the unions can’t force workers to pay union dues (which leads to more free-riding behavior among employees, a decline in unionization drives, and ultimately in overall union density) and because workers lose out on economic growth (trickle-down economics doesn’t work).
This doesn’t mean we should ditch Labor Day, though. It’s true that labor has changed since the first national celebration, but many of the workplace battles McGuire & Co. fought for still exist. Today’s work force is more diverse than a century ago - more women, more ethnic minorities, more older workers - and we still have the five-day workweek (with leisure-time weekends), the eight-hour workday, paid vacations, sick days, and - yes - three-day holidays such as Labor Day Weekend. These - and so much more - were the fruits of their labors.
All the opposition in the world can’t change that.
Tomorrow, I officially begin my 21st year in public education. My first four were with the Bloomfield Hills School District as assistant manager of WBFH-FM (1995-99). That was followed by three with the Martin County School District at South Fork High School (1999-2002) And now, I'm kicking off my 14th at Wellington High School of The School District of Palm Beach County.
And it all started, strangely enough, because of a newspaper strike in Detroit and a phone conversation with a former high school teacher about his meeting David Letterman.
Flashback: November 1994. After nearly 2 1/2 years, I resigned my position as a full-time journalist at The Spinal Column Newsweekly for a myriad of reasons, many of which were directly related to my less-than-stellar relationship with the editor of that newspaper. (Despite the name; it was a paper that took a no-hold-barred approach to local politics and news, not a chiropractic journal.) After years of butting heads with an editor who chose to re-write more than edit, who offended a number of employees in a manner that would make Donald Trump blush, and with whom I had absolutely no faith in as a supervisor anymore, I felt it was in my best interest to part ways and venture out on my own as a free-lance reporter for several Detroit-area newspapers; this included working for The Mirror Newspapers of Royal Oak, The Detroit Jewish News, and The Detroit News, the latter of which had been both a goal and a dream of mine. I landed all three free-lance gigs within six weeks of my resignation.
My signing on with The Detroit News was due in part to my friendship with Oralandar Brand-Williams, with whom I worked for two years in the mid-1980s at WWJ radio. She was my connection; she helped guide me to the right person, and in the media business, it's always good to follow your leads. (Networking, my friends.) I started writing Oakland County political pieces on a weekly basis for The Detroit News, up until July 1995, when reporters went on strike. I was approached on the second day of the walkout by management to cross the picket line and write for the paper full-time; it was at this time I was informed I'd risen to the Number 2 free-lance position at the paper. (I don't know if I was told this to sway me to cross the line, or if it was legit, or both, but it certainly boosted my ego!)
But after pondering the decision - and after speaking with Oralandar - I turned down the offer.
I value friendship over employment, even though I knew it looked like a death knell both for future full-time work with the paper and my ability to do free-lance reporting for the short term. And yes, I realized at that moment I was cutting off a decent chunk of my pay, which was a rather terrifying consideration. It made me have to both pick up my game with the other two papers and try to figure out other reporting/photography options.
It was about two months into this sudden financial and employment void I received a phone call from Pete Bowers, the station manager of WBFH-FM, the educational high school radio station of the Bloomfield Hills (Mich.) School District. And here, I must digress into some serious background information.
Pete Bowers and I went back, way back, to my days as a student at Bloomfield Hills Lahser High School; I took his Fundamentals of Radio Broadcasting course during the 1979-80 school year. After taking FORB, I advanced to the radio station staff, and spent two amazing years of high school speaking into a microphone, spinning stacks of wax on turntables (an all-jazz show!), writing and covering local news stories, conducting interviews, doing live sports broadcasts, and being active in the practical application of real-life public communication skills on a 10-watt radio station. There were staff road trips to radio conventions in his powder blue VW MicroBus and the annual March of Dimes Radio Marathon every spring, where students would beg for pledges in the fight against birth defects.
It was a pretty cool gig for high school students in the pre-Internet world.
To say I'd found a calling is a disservice to callings; I spent so many hours at the station after school that many of my other classes suffered en masse; during my junior year, my grades dive-bombed to the point where my parents met with Pete, and my time was restricted to "the bare minimum" to pass the class. Luckily, I found my footing by my senior year, and graduated high school (although there are some who probably consider that a miracle in the grand scheme of things).
My time at WBFH (also known as "The Biff" and "The 10-Watt Big Shot") molded my future in a number of ways. I focused on attending Central Michigan University, which offered one of the top broadcasting programs in the nation at the time, and was Pete's alma mater. (The fact I had relatives in Mt. Pleasant, where CMU was located, and knew the area, was an added incentive.) But in 1985, I chose to take a sabbatical from college, and during that year off, secured an "independent study" through CMU's Broadcast & Cinematic Arts Department at - you guessed it - WBFH for a semester. This became my second time working under Pete's mentorship. It was during this time I snagged interviews with the Detroit Tigers radio team of Ernie Harwell and Paul Carey, which was one of the highlights of my life, then and now.
So here it was, the Summer of 1995, seven weeks after my time with The Detroit News had come to a sudden stop. Pete Bowers called me out of the blue, and we chatted for around 40 minutes. The majority of the phone call was him talking about his trip to New York City in mid-August, where he and WBFH Assistant Manager Ron Wittebols had personally met David Letterman outside the Ed Sullivan Theater (near the famous Hello Deli). They posed for photos, and had tickets to that night's show, so it was a double amazing experience for PB and The Ronster. (In case you didn't know, Pete is a huge fan of Letterman, so this was probably as close to walking on air as humanly possible for him. And if you didn't know this before ... now you do!)
The conversation shifted at some point to Pete informing me Ron had landed a job at a Detroit-area public relations/advertising firm ... and his assistant manager position was available ... and he wondered if I was interested ...
And I think I accepted the job before he had finished the offer. It was a no-brainer among no-brainers.
I spent four years - four glorious years - working with Pete Bowers for the third time in a 15 year span. But this time, it was a little different. As with any new job (and this time, it truly was a job - hey, a paycheck!), I still had much to learn. There was new computer technology to work with, including automated broadcasting overnight and during the summers. There were students working with record label reps from California and New York, securing advance copies of to-be-released CDs. There were live remotes of sports broadcasts, new ways of recording local news stories and public service announcements.
But I had two advantages: (1) even though years had passed and some aspects of the program had changed, I knew enough about how the WBFH functioned and how the program was structured that it made the transition smoother than coming in blind; and (2) Pete is an excellent educator who has made a different in thousands of young adults' lives the past four decades.
I even got a radio show out of the deal! I, with my friend Jeff Falcon, hosted a nighttime program called The Biff Rock Cafe, which we dubbed "fly by the seat of your pants radio at its finest"; shows included bringing in local politicians, doing live local band performances, and running "theme" broadcasts.
{Sidebar: I also started free-lance reporting and feature writing for The Detroit News again. Happy happy, joy joy, indeed!}
About a year into my working at The Biff, I thought, maybe this whole "education" thing might be something to consider. I spoke to several individuals about the idea at length, including my aunt Ruth Moltz (a French & Spanish teacher in Southfield) and Pete. They encouraged me to consider it. So I enrolled in Wayne State University's "Masters of Arts in Teaching" program and started taking secondary education courses. The real fun was my last year (1998-99), when my student teaching commenced at The International Academy, an all-International Baccalaureate high school about five miles from the WBFH studios. For the year, my exhausting schedule was basically Monday-Friday 7am-3pm at the IA, 3:30-10pm at WBFH, and Saturdays 8am-1pm at WBFH overseeing the station's Saturday Jamz program (for area middle school DJs) in order to reach the 40-hour work week expectations. Somewhere in there, I breathed, ate, put together lesson plans, graded papers, and retained my sanity. (Notice that "sleeping" is not included here; that's because I don't think it happened during the entire run.)
Something I am asked by many of my debate students is about my own high school debate program experiences. Sadly, I have none (to the best of my knowledge, Lahser didn't have a program at the time). But I can relate my radio broadcasting experiences to them, and in many ways, radio to me in high school is what debate is to my students. WBFH is definitely a parallel connection. Both debate and radio involve multi-tasking and various skill sets. Both involve honing critical thinking, researching, writing, and oral communication skills. Both involve mentorship of all students from an adult supervisor, and of newer students from program veterans. Both involve real life knowledge of the world in which we live. And both are comprised of close-knit groups of highly intelligent and motivated young adults, many of whom remain friends long after their commencement exercises take place.
I can only hope to be as positive an influence for my debaters as Pete Bowers was - and continues to be - for his students, as well as for me. I'm proud to be a product of his program.
So, here I am, some 35 years removed from my introduction to the world of radio broadcasting. I carry much of it with me in my debate classroom, as a professional educator. The tools have been modified to some degree (radio and debate aren't exactly clones of each other), and they work. The crux is helping young adults learn how to harness their inner voice and make it shine. In some cases, their voices were already out there, but just need to be fine-tuned; in others, they didn't even realize they had a voice.
Much has happened in the 16 years I've lived in Florida. Just as much has changed at WBFH. A new high school is under construction in Bloomfield Hills, scheduled to open this fall. Modern WBFH studios are part of the new facility. And I know Pete is as excited about this as he was about starting up the model program in 1976, with a fresh degree from Central Michigan University.
Truth be told, so am I. Even from 1,200 miles away.
Here's to another great year of preparing young adults for the future.
