A Modest Proposal (After an Audacious One)

        Ah the flat tax…Perhaps my favorite Warner Bros. short is the one where Foghorn Leghorn’s principal antagonists, the Chicken Hawk and the “Dawg,” lure him into a peep show with “hulee. hulee dancers” whereupon he is pummeled to oblivion.  In this upcoming election cycle, conservative republicans play the role of dawg and hawk with the enticement of a flat tax while working and middle class Americans once again stick their heads into the tent.   As I recall, I don’t have time to check for historical accuracy, Dick Army, right wing sweetheart, introduced a flat tax bill to great fanfare in the 1980s.  Later, 1994, Newt Gingrich promoted the flat tax as a tenet in the “Contract with America” that solidified the conservative hold on contemporary American politics.   Since that time, every election season includes a flat tax proposal from a conservative candidate.  Republicans have held congress 17 of the last 21 years and the flat tax has never even gotten to a vote.   

Contrary to the hope of simpletons, the flat tax will never happen.  Here’s why: Too many people benefit financially under the current tax structure.   Plus, the wealthier you, or your company, are the more you benefit.  Corporate welfare is real and it starts with the income tax.  Given this reality, here is a tax proposal of liberal and libertarian foundation:

Taxes have always been a tool used to manipulate the governed.  This is not limited to American history.  Whether republic, monarchy, autocratic or communist, taxes are levied by the powerful to get specific behaviors from the citizenry.   Sell more houses give a tax break on mortgages, decrease smoking increase the cigarette tax, encourage children by giving a deduction on dependents, etcetera, etcetera… I propose that as a democratic republic we turn this on its head.   First, let’s start with a progressive flat tax that starts at, say, 30% for the wealthiest.   Then, here’s the kicker, develop a list of government services that the taxpayer can select for his or her contributions:  A cafeteria plan as it were.  Add to this a percentage allocation option for the services chosen.   Finally, write into this tax law a privacy stipulation that says that only the individual taxpayer can know what he or she selected. 

Talk about government by the governed.   Due to the wild variety of opinions that exist in this country, I’m not sure our bureaucratic priorities would change that much.  However, wouldn’t it be nice to see representatives and government bureaucratic budgets beholden to the public?   Being the good liberal that I am I would choose education, health care, social security, food stamps, infrastructure, law enforcement and reluctantly, defense (We do need it you know).   There are many who would select other options, but I’m ok with that.

Now I know this idea would never happen so here is plan “B”:  Raise the minimum wage to a living wage for 40 hour employees.  Forget all of the tax manipulation.   Consumption, not the illness, represents about 70% of our economy.  Whenever our economy goes into a slump, no matter how steep, government revenues drop.   This obviously happens because income and spending decrease.  Pay people for their work and you just might see revenue for the things we need.

Let's Talk

I think I would prefer conversation…Either that or this maddening digital age has taken any semblance of disciplined discernment out of my being.  I have ideas, I actually like to explore them with others and refine my misconceptions.   I have discovered that I enjoy this aspect of Facebook, but few are willing, have the time or are suffering from this malady I now describe.  

            Our new challenge as human beings is to regain some semblance of discipline with the hyper access of social media.   When our communication options began to explode around 2000.  I discovered that I couldn’t keep up with voice mail and email.  I then declared to anyone with whom I worked that email is the best way to get in touch with me.   I continue to stick with this mantra and find that most compliment my communication.   Since that time we have added Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram etc., and I still tell people to put it in an email.  I was recently told by my boss to text because that is the best way to get her response.  I try.

            At some point we are going to have to come to a collective understanding about the impact all of these communication protocol have on our productivity.  Many dismiss this as “Boomer Ranting,” but we need to understand that boomers still have a profound collective impact on our government, culture and society.  This has to be acknowledged and served.

            I have ideas.  I want to contribute for the rest of my life.   I need to be heard.  However, I can’t seem to keep up with the almost daily change in interaction protocol.   I’m not sure “Xers”, Millenials or  any other generational iteration does any better.   My peers tend to post pictures of young people sucked into their phones astounded by the abhorrent behavior, while the young simply laugh at our scorn.

            There is evidence that some have caught on.  Some corporations have set policy about appropriate time on emails.  Leadership consultants have begun to tell us that it is ok to limit access.  I just want to sit down with people and share ideas.  Over a beer of course…

Paxatawney Phil vs. Pavlov’s Dog

Paxatawney Phil vs. Pavlov’s Dog

Or….10 things I hate about Presidential Politics…

10.  Bush v. Clinton

            A Bush or Clinton has been running for national office since 1980.  35 years.  Every time I have been eligible to vote for president, a Bush or Clinton on the ticket. 

The Bushes are 3 wins  2 losses when running for President where the Clintons are 2 and 1.  This is more interminable than a 7 game series in the NBA playoffs or Major Leagues.  There are a lot of good American families out there.  Why aren’t they participating?

9.   White Water,  Benghazi, email, foundation contributions from foreigners, whatever…

Every time a Clinton arrives on the scene somebody has to make up or decry scandal.  Invariably the taxpayers pay, to the tune of millions of dollars, for a plethora of committee investigations, special investigators and nauseating testimony.  The result is always the same.  No fault is found, the Clinton’s become more popular, and more times than not they win.

8 . The Pavlovian press…

            When political arch enemies mention said scandals, the national press dives in and gossip like Southern Bells at a Bloody Mary breakfast.  They are just about as articulate.

7.  Tell All Best Sellers about the opposition as Anti-Christ…

            Please stop buying these books.  At some point we have to see that numbers 8 and 9 on this list have become cottage industries.  People on the far end of both sides eat this stuff up.  The writers then literally laugh all the way to the bank.  Somebody please tell these folk that the author’s picture on the back sleeve doesn’t help sales.

6.  Woodward and Bernstein lucked into Watergate…

            Watch the movie or read the book, unless a sports writer from the Chattanooga Times-News Free Press happens upon Bill Clinton’s jump drive at a baseball card convention, no other  “…Gate” will bring down the government and make the press look good again.

5. Citizens United…

            I know, the Supreme Court is bought and sold.  However, in history the wealthy almost always win until they die like the rest of us.

4.  Red States v. Blue States…

            Show me an emerald green state and I am there…

3.  Newt Gingrich…Really?

            The absolute poster boy for hypocrisy and political prostitution.  He’s been in this mess as long the Bushes and the Clintons.  If I hear this historical, or is that hysterical, blasphemer blowhard abuse Constitutional history one more time I will truly barf.

2.  Koch Brothers are taking over the world…

            Nixon was kicked out of office for misusing a few million bucks and covering up a robbery.  The Koch Brothers are bragging that they are going to buy off every Republican in the Presidential primary to the tune of 900 million dollars.  Millhouose obviously suffered from bad timing. How do you get so rich with these types of investments? I get it.  They like the Daily Show and act to insure that Jonathan Stewart has plenty of material.

1.     Paxatawney Phil vs. Pavlov’s Dog…

           Every day, from here to November 2016, it’s the same thing.  The TV, computer or portable device comes on and we salivate for more of this stuff.  We complain, deride and beg it to stop, but we can’t help ourselves.   Don’t pretend that your Netflix habit gets you away from the commercials approved by every candidate, because Facebook, Twitter et. al. keep us reading or listening to Robert Reich, Rush Limbaugh or whomever.  Samuel Clemmens and Will Rogers are rolling over in their graves, not because this is so repulsive, but due to the fact that they missed the fun. We should at least be able to stop buying the best sellers.  Please!!!!

Have We Missed the Boat?

The span of time was 28 generations.  If the accepted span of a generation is 25 years, then the time between Isaiah and Jesus was approximately 28 generations; around 700 years.   As we move through another advent, we read the prophesy of Isaiah that points toward the arrival of John and Jesus.  A great deal happened in the meantime.  The Diaspora, numerous redemptions and falls of Israel, and the destruction and rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem along with invasions by the Assyrians, various Persian sects, the Greeks and the Romans.  State behavior didn’t change much and Israel remained a relatively minor country with varying levels of independence from the regional empires of various epochs.   In spite of all of this John and Jesus arrived in Palestine.  Later recognized by Christians as the Messiah,  Jesus was the realization of Isaiah’s prophesy 700 years earlier.  So what did the people reading, or hearing, this prophesy think during the 28 generation wait?  Did they feel abandoned by God?   Did they lose hope?  Is this why so many refused to acknowledge that Jesus was the Messiah?

It can be effectively deduced that at the time of Jesus, Israel was a country under oppression.   Rome was all-powerful with wealth and weaponry that was overwhelming to the people of Palestine.   As the priestly class acquiesced with the Roman authority, the people of Israel were living life day to day with little hope of change.   It could only be assumed that the Messiah prophesied by Isaiah would have to be some all powerful leader who could represent the will of God to smite the Roman oppressors and bring in a reign that had no known equal.   Jesus shows up in sandals and starts talking to the poor about a kingdom no one could understand or imagine.   

What would Isaiah think?   He writes of a Messiah of humble origins, but did he see this in the model of David or the simple carpenter that threatened the existing order without raising a sword.   Jesus’ ministry and death were mere blips in the time continuum that is human kind, yet the influence arguably covers 2700 years.   Roughly 108 generations. This encourages those awaiting a second coming.  God takes his time.  As I wrote earlier, many things happened between the time of Isaiah and Jesus.  Many leaders rose and fell.  Israel experienced various levels of prosperity, destitution and obscurity.    

Jews have not recognized Jesus as the Messiah of Isaiah and have not acknowledged any one yet.   Christians, expecting Jesus’ return have not experienced that return.  Or have we?  The dreaded or anticipated apocalypse, depending on one’s point of view, has not occurred despite numerous predictions.  Or has it? Some thirty years after Paul, Jerusalem was razed.  In the 5^th century, Rome fell.  Throughout the middle ages one conquest after the other lead to millions of dead.  Plagues occurred resulting in the deaths of millions.  Europe was in a constant state of war through World War II.   The twentieth century resulted in 100 million deaths from war.  What constitutes an apocalypse?  Maybe we just don’t understand that we should be better now.  Or did everyone miss the rapture?

 

This Should be a 3 Alarm Fire

            In the 30 years that I served CMS, North Carolina failed to live up to its financial obligations to our educators on at least 3 occasions.  When I went to Charlotte out of college in 1982, the country was enmeshed in a deep recession.  The step raise program promoted so proudly to recruit teachers from other parts of the country had been frozen in 1980 and would remain so until 1985, the recession officially ended in 1982.   In 1986, CMS began a “career ladder pilot” that would provide bonuses, paid monthly, for teachers who were willing to subject themselves to an intense series of observations.   When the recession of 1991 hit, North Carolina froze teacher salaries on the third year of a commitment to get them to the national average and ended the bonus program.   For the next five years, teachers who had earned “Career Status” were “held harmless” to allow the income of peers with equal experience to catch up. The frozen salary often meant that the earning power of many dropped over a span of five years.

In 1995, North Carolina jumped into the standards movement with both feet.  The state implemented testing for reading and math along with a bonus program for schools.  Schools that achieved expected growth would earn bonuses of $750.00 per certified staff member.   Schools that achieved high growth would earn bonuses of $1500.00.  The ABCs of North Carolina, as this program was penned, cruised along for about ten years with many schools earning bonuses for their teachers along with standard pay raises.  However, by 2005 it was discovered that the reading and math tests were not actually representing true grade level performance.   A consequence of this reality was that more and more schools were earning the bonuses that the state then determined it could not afford.   North Carolina then made the tests more rigorous and decided to reduce bonuses.  When the economy collapsed in 2008, the ABC bonuses were withheld.  In my last four years as Principal, after meaningful changes to the tests, Myers Park Traditional Elementary achieved high growth each year, and my staff did not receive a dime.   North Carolina never paid them the $6000.00 they earned for their performance.

 Over the past four decades, half of the teachers entering the profession leave within five years.   In an October 2013 article in The Atlantic by Liz Riggs, it was noted that 15.7% of teachers leave the profession annually, about 4% higher than other professions, and that about 40% pursuing undergraduate degrees never enter classrooms.  There are a myriad of reasons noted in the article, most relating to the demands of the job, lack of respect from supervisors and society, along with inadequate pay.  

The past three decades in North Carolina have demonstrated to teachers and prospective teachers that the commitment to improving salaries and classroom conditions is never realized.   As Eric Davis’ of the CMS Board of Education advocates, 2/22/14 Charlotte Observer, the state could overcome this perception by taking a long view on improving teacher pay.  I would like to add that this long view should never be compromised.  Planning for funding should include provisions for inevitable recessions.  I realize that none of us are immune to cyclical economic downturns, but the only way that we will improve our teaching corps and convince the most qualified to participate would be to end a history of inconsistent support from state governments.   Since all seem to agree that the teacher has the greatest impact on student performance, with Principals not far behind, then we should show prospective and current teachers that we are committed to support them financially over a long period of time.   School reform will ring hollow until this happens and many of the best teaching candidates will continue to leave or enter other professions.

I wrote this about three years ago as I was transitioning to become a principal in Alabama.   In that time, states across the country have dramatically reduced spending in K-12 and at state universities.  This while the economy has fully recovered from the “Great Recession.”  The current defunding of public education during a period of economic growth is unprecedented.  If the reason for this trend is to keep the populace uniformed, then the threat to our nation is profound.  If the reason is simply greed and inattention by the public,  as evidenced through the passivity of our electorate,  then the threat represents a pervasive trend that could result in the end of this democratic experiment.  Diverse thought and energetic debate have been a historic mainstay of our Republic when it is healthy.  If we choose to divest in a meaningful education for our children, our republic faces a threat as great as any external enemy.