Samuel

A friend on Facebook recently asked me this;

“Why are the people enlightened enough to abhor socialized ~education~ and all it has wrought invariably the same people eager to jump on the socialized ~medicine~ bandwagon?!”

At first, I wasn’t sure how to answer. But here’s what I finally said.

“I prefer a socialized education system to a privatized, corporate one, although I see numerous flaws and failings in either system. I feel the same way about health care; I don’t think that socialized medicine will eliminate all (or even most) of my gripes with the health care system, but given the available options, I think it’s the best one. I certainly think that it’s better to remove the profit motive from health care, because in a system where health care is sold for profit there are all sorts of incentives for involved companies to cut corners and cut costs by keeping people from getting needed, lifesaving treatments. This is not to say that I think a socialized system will be without drawbacks, which American conservatives are quick to point out, only that it’s preferable to what we have now (which for many of us is absolutely nothing).

Overall, I generally think that people rely on ’systems’ – be they socialized, privatized, corporate, fascist, or theocratic, far more than is healthy. People should do more for themselves.

In terms of Health, I think we should feel empowered enough to do careful research about what lifestyles, nutrition, exercise, herbal remedies, and other alternative treatments will best suit us. Taking ownership over my own health has been one of the most empowering and enlightening things I have done in my life, and by eating healthy, whole food, I feel healthier than I ever have. This has nothing to do with any kind of health care system, but rather with a sense of personal ownership between me and my body, with no government or company interfering.

In terms of School, I think that people will be smarter, more informed, and in general better prepared to deal with the world to the degree that they take ownership of their own education. Sometimes, this is more possible in public/private partnership schools than it is in public schools. Sometimes, it is best achieved with no school at all. But I don’t think that means we should close all the schools. I think that socialized education is actually a wonderful thing, in principle. Even in the deeply dysfunctional way that it is currently practiced, it is a real benefit to communities to have publicly funded schools available.

So, in short, I separate the question of what a society should provide to its members from the question of what the responsibility of each member is. I would like to see a world where everyone takes responsibility from their own education, and for their own health. But I don’t think that’s likely, and therefore I think it’s a good idea to offer publicly funded education and publicly funded health care as an option for those who are unwilling or unable to take ownership of their own experience. I don’t think that either thing, education or health care, should be compulsory.

A final thought has to do with the inherent differences between education and health care. For the most part, with a little ingenuity and a willingness to ask for expert advice when it’s needed, I am able to educate myself about just about anything without a systematic, institutional program to provide me with the knowledge. By contrast, I would be hard pressed to perform my own open heart surgery, set my own broken leg, or even do my own routine dental work. So while there is a lot that an individual can do to be empowered and take charge of their own health preventatively, often when things go very badly an expert is really needed to intervene.

These are draft thoughts, and so I apologize for rambling a little (my ideas were developing as I typed). But I hope that whatever dissidence seemed to be present in my ideas has been cleared up.”

Any thoughts?

On Tuesday, Arthur and I took his Strider bike over to the Amazon Skate Bowl so he could do some tricks. This is one of his favorite things to do. I was incredibly impressed at how competent he’s gotten on the Strider. Anyway, I took a few pictures with my phone. Click on the picture at the left to go to the gallery. And if you have kids, let me recommend these balance bikes. Arthur is not quite two three*, and you can see that he’s already having a great time riding a bike. When he’s big enough for a bike with pedals, he probably will never need training wheels. Totally awesome, as I still remember the abject terror of riding with my training wheels off for the first time.

*EDIT: Oh my god, I went back in time.

I want to show you my bike.

Here she is, parked in the SEIU office. If you look at the rear storage area, you’ll notice a milk crate (obtained through completely legitimate means) mounted on the rack. Inside the milk crate is something I’m quite pleased with that I recently put together. It’s a box, taped together out of corrugated plastic political signs that were kicking around here. It increases the amount of hauling capacity I have by a lot. The next plan is to add square buckets to the sides of the rack area. When all is said and done, I’ll have enough water resistant cargo space to carry around 3 bags of groceries.

I did this because my Bike is my primary mode of transportation. I ride it to and from work, I use it to pick up my son (who rides in a Burley trailer), and I use it for recreation. I also own a car. I drive places where I can’t reasonably bike, like the Country Fair, Portland, the Coast. All are accessible from Eugene by cycle, but all require a greater degree of commitment to the journey than I am willing to give myself over to on a Saturday when I’d rather be dipping my toes in the surf or eating Pad Thai by the Long Tom.

My wife uses the car for a lot of the family’s errand running as well, but between the two of us we hardly buy a tank of gas once a month. 14 Gallon tank, 30 Miles per Gallon, that’s under 500 miles a month of driving for the whole family. Not much, considering that many people I know drive twice that much or more.

Taylor and I have made a lot of choices and commitments to minimize the driving we do. We do this for several reasons. One reason is saving money, and that’s important to us. But more important is our commitment to conservation. We know that there is a limited amount of fossil fuel remaining under the ground, and recognize that it is important to be cautious stewards of the remaining fuel so that future generations can continue to use it for the public good. Also, we are concerned about climate change and about the impact our driving has on greenhouse gas emissions. So we choose not to drive when we can walk, bike, or take the bus. We encourage others in our community to do the same, but for the most part we recognize that we’re making an individual choice and we can’t compel others to join us.

But I have this niggling issue about economics. Supply and demand dictate the price of fuel. As supply dwindles the price of fuel increases until demand drops and the market comes back into equilibrium. So here’s the issue; right now I’m conserving fuel while the price is low because of my concern for the public good while others are using buying fuel with impunity at a low price. Say I use 200 gallons a year, while my neighbor who drives everywhere in his big cargo van uses 1000 gallons a year. At current prices, about $2 a gallon, he’s paying $2000 a year for fuel while I’m paying $400. Now, let’s imagine that the price of fuel increases fourfold to $8 a gallon (before you pooh pooh this thought, remember that in Europe they’re paying around $6.50 a gallon right now). Now he’s paying $8000 while I’m paying $1600. But my neighbor can’t afford the $8000 price tag, so he begins to take simple measures to reduce his fuel consumption (the same measures I’ve already taken). He cuts back on his driving by half and starts paying only $4000. I, on the other hand, have already taken the basic, simple steps toward fuel economy and even taken more drastic ones. I don’t have room in my life to drive less. I’m still paying $1600.

So, even though my neighbor and I pay the same price for gas today and in the future, in a sense I am currently subsidizing his over-consumption. He’s buying a lot of gas at the cheaper price whereas I’m buying a little. When gas goes up and he cuts down on driving, he buys less gas at the higher price while I buy the same amount. On average, I’ve paid $5 per gallon while he’s paid only $4.

This situation is unfair, and I think something needs to be done about it. I would, therefore, propose a graduated fuel tax, asking people who use more fuel to pay a higher percentage in taxes. The revenue from this tax would be directed toward research into alternative fuels in order to, hopefully, mitigate the subsidy that those of us who are conserving fuel today while it is inexpensive provide to those who are consuming more than their fair share.

As an added bonus, maybe such a tax would encourage more people to use bicycles for transportation. It’s such a pleasure to get around on a bike, you never need to search for parking, and you see the world from so much closer up. Not only would society benefit from less fuel consumed, we would be healthier (and probably happier).

Until next time.

Here, friends, is the second volume of children’s music made of grown up music that Arthur and I have put together. He particularly likes the Beastie Boys and Radiohead. Note, before sharing this list with your kids, that I have vetted it for adult language but not adult themes (and I may have missed a curse here or there).

Truckin * The Grateful Dead
Rudi, A Message to You * The Specials
Body Movin’ * Beastie Boys
Spider In My Room * Barenaked Ladies
Everything in its Right Place * Radiohead
Black Tambourine * Beck
No Rain * Blind Melon
Two Of Us * The Beatles
19-2000 * Gorillaz
Rabbit In Your Headlights (feat. Thom York) * Unkle
Subterranean Homesick Blues * Bob Dylan
Green Onions * Booker T & The MG’s
Little Wonder * David Bowie
Three Little Birds * Bob Marley
Stop! In The Name Of Love * Diana Ross and The Supremes
Gone Daddy Gone * Gnarls Barkley
Immigrant Song * Led Zeppelin
Manta Ray * Pixies
What If No One’s Watching * Ani DiFranco
Daydream * Smashing Pumpkins

Ever since I was a small child, I’ve had an aversion to sports. I don’t think I ever remember my Dad watching a sports game other than the big ones; the World Series, the Super Bowl, the big ones. I never even remember my Mom watching those. In first grade I played tee-ball. I didn’t know how to throw, didn’t know how to catch, and didn’t know how to hold a bat. A kid called me “tinky wiss” and I ran home in tears. My Dad still pokes fun at me for that. Thanks Dad.

In second grade I played soccer. My school was the Spanish Immersion school, and even then our soccer team was always among the best in the city. Maybe it was our proximity to latin culture, although I doubt it since we were 99% suburban white kids. I played goalie, which was generally pretty good for me since our team was so good and the ball rarely made it to my side of the field. My most intense memory from my two months of soccer was my Mom scolding me for making daisy chains in the grass. I guess I let several shots go right past me. I was having fun.

That was the end of my sports playing, other than some occasional dabbling. At recess I tried playing basketball a few times, but my classmates were unwilling to experiment with my ideas for rule modifications. They mostly had to do with pretending that the players were spies, dragons, devils, unicorns, and generally anything more interesting than a bunch of third graders. I also tried my hand at wall-ball, four-square, and hopscotch. Those were more my speed, not because I was any good at them, but because my play time was limited by my incompetence so I spent most of my wall-ball playing hours standing in line waiting for another turn against the big kid who never lost.

I also liked tether-ball, but only when I was playing without an opponent.

My point here is that I was never athletic, never wanted to be, and never got any real encouragement to be. It wasn’t that I was an inactive kid. In fact, the phrase “I was an inactive kid” would probably be an unwise one for me to speak when riding in a car driven by an adult who knew me as a kid, as the laughter it would be likely to elicit would potentially cause a serious motor vehicle accident. That was a sentence, I promise. It’s just that I’ve never much gone in for organized sports, or even individual athletics in any formal sense. My preference was always to just, you know, run around and pretend to be a unicorn. Or an evil devil creature. But a few of my closest friends were from conservative christian families and they wouldn’t play pretend with me if I was being a devil of any sort, or even a demon or a demon-like creature, so I usually ended up being a unicorn.

I never thought I’d be interested in sports. But then, a few years ago, I started going to the minor league baseball games at Civic Stadium in Eugene. Our home team, the Ems, aren’t great. They haven’t had a genuine winning season in a long time (although this last year they didn’t do too badly, and barely missed a shot at the regional finals). I realized that I kind of like baseball.

At first, I thought that I just liked going to the stadium, which is a beautiful historic structure, full of character and life. But the past few days, as Baseball season has started, I’ve started to wonder why it is that I’ve always been so aloof to sports. I think that it has to do with a temptation toward a certain kind of intellectual superiority that I too often succumb to. I mean, in a lot of ways, I am “that” liberal. I listen to NPR News every morning. I believe, or at least put off the impression that I believe that my political opinions are based in rational thought and scientific fact, while the opinions of those with whom I disagree are ideologically and religiously motivated. I am arrogant about who I spend my time with, and don’t easily put up with willful ignorance. I have actually referred to the midwest as “the flyover states”. I drink $10 bottles of beer. And I scoff at sports fans as uncouth midwesterners, ignorant and uncultured, worthy of disdain.

I don’t like this about myself. I try not to react in knee-jerks, and while I’m not going to change my mind about global warming without being presented with some really convincing scientific evidence, I can at least give a major form of American entertainment a second (first?) chance. So I’m going to try to follow baseball this season. I’m going to root for the Boston Red Sox, because I own a Red Sox baseball cap that I found on the street. I’m going to keep up with scores, stats, and all that. I may even watch some games.

If I hate it, at least I can say that I don’t follow sports because I know I don’t like them, not because of any cultural elitism. And I think I’ll be a better person for it.

But while I’m watching, I’m still going to pretend to be a unicorn.

I’m going to file my taxes today. It’s the first whole year I’ve worked a full time job after college. The pay is pretty lousy (neighborhood of $30,000 for a family of three) so I’m hoping to still get a quality size return. On the other hand, I’m not really sure what to expect at all.

I’m one of these crazy people who has always said that I relish the idea of paying for my fair share. I believe the government does important work (some of that work I myself actually do) and that it’s had it’s hands tied for too long by insane tax policy.

Like here in Oregon. We have a ‘citizen legislature’ that meets only every two years to set the budget for the coming biennium. They are in session right now and will be writing a budget that starts in July 2009 and goes through June 2011 based on budget projections that will be released next month.

Think about this for a second; we’re in the midst of a global economic crisis for which no one has an adequate explanation, much less a confident prediction of what’s going to happen next. Our legislators have been given the best information available to make a plan for the next two years, and once the plan is made we’re stuck with it. If there’s a shortfall, the Governor can make administrative cuts. If the economy does better than expected, the surpluses goes back to the taxpayers in the form of the Kicker.

What this means is that the legislature is going to make a worst case scenario crisis plan this summer, and if the recovery is better than expected we’re still going to have to live with the deep cuts they made to services like police, schools, roads, caregivers for seniors and people with disabilities, mental health care, and a thousand other essential functions that the state does every day without anyone even knowing that they’re doing it. If it’s worse, the governor will cut even deeper.

All of this is because the people of Oregon have been suckered by the siren song of so called citizen tax activists who are on an ideologically motivated mission to bankrupt the government. They don’t believe that government should be in the business of providing social services to people in need, and they are trying to destroy the government by cutting off it’s funding. These people call themselves patriots, but I say that they’re anti-government radicals who are trying to destroy our system.

Their plot is a brilliantly fiendish one. They never talk about destroying the government, beyond criticizing mythical sounding examples of government excess. Instead, they couch their argument in terms of the people being shouldered with an untenable tax burden. And we respond, because when it comes to the end of the year we are shocked by the price tag of all our payroll deductions from the year added up. Never mind that, in annual figures, taxes are one of our smallest expenses. dollar for dollar, our taxes (at least our state taxes) give us an enormous amount of value. Never mind that providing adequate services costs money.

In rich times, these anti-government radicals fight to cripple the government’s revenue stream so that in poor times like these the impact of crises is magnified. Well, I’m not fooled.

The truth is that paying taxes is patriotic, because taxes are what pays for our civil society. So today, as I set down to fill out forms and e-file, I’ll raise a glass to the government. Is it perfect? Is it completely efficient at all times? Is it without a single flaw to be held up to scorn? Absolutely not! But it’s the best government we’ve got, and it will only get better if we stop choking off it’s revenue flow. So here’s to paying taxes! Three cheers for taxes!

Hip hip! (Hurrah)

Hip hip! (Hurrah)

Hip hip! (Hurrah)

I have a strong distaste for most kid’s music. I find it condescending and I think that second rate musicians often find themselves recording bad music for kids because they could get published recording real music for people. This offends me, in no small way, because I believe that children have every ounce of capacity they need to enjoy real music. So, when I make kids CDs I make them out of music that wasn’t designed for kids. Here’s the playlist for a new car CD I just burned for Arthur for a trip to Portland we’re leaving on in a few. A note to other parents; I have not vetted these songs for any small use of profanity or adult themes. In “Took A Trip On A Gemini Spacecraft” David Bowie says “I grabbed my space gun and I thought about you”. Yes, that is what he was talking about. This doesn’t bother me. If it bothers you, you should stay clear of this playlist. But none of the songs have refrains that I would not want to hear at the top of a two year olds lungs again, and again, and again.

I Love Rock and Roll Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Hound Dog Elvis Presley
Super Disco Breakin’ Beastie Boys
I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship David Bowie
Video Killed the Radio Star The Buggles
Golden Years David Bowie
Soul Bossa Nova Quincy Jones and His Orchestra
Big Rock Candy Mountain Harry McClintock
99 Luftballons Nena
I Can’t Explain The Who
The Unforgettable Fire U2
‘Ol ‘55 Tom Waits
Low Rider War
Mr_ Jones Talking Heads
I Missed The Bus Skankin’ Pickle
You Can Dance If You Want To Men at Work
Stomach Vs. Heart Barenaked Ladies
Turn The Wheel Hot Buttered Rum!
Over The Rainbow Johnny Mathis And Ray Charles
Good Golly Miss Molly C. C. R.
Let It Be The Beatles
Over to My House The Inkwell Rhythm Makers

Recently, Arthur got himself a new toy. When he was very little, he did a little bit of work as a beautiful baby in some safety videos. His salary went into a special account for him, the idea being that we’d save it until he was an older kid. And most of it we are, but given the opportunity we had to tap it to get him one of these wonderful inventions. It’s called a balance bike or a running bike, and it’s made by the Strider Company. It’s a small bicycle with two wheels – no training wheels. It doesn’t have any pedals, but it does have an extra wide rear fork with grip tape so that a kid who gets going really fast has a place to put their feet up and coast. This way he can learn to balance on a bicycle gradually first, and add the extra complication of pedals later.

He loves it. It took a week or so to convince him that the bike was cook enough to be worth wearing the bike helmet (not a comfortable accessory, but an important one!) Once he was convinced to give it a try, he was sold. Now there is a daily bike ride at least around the block if not further afield. And he’s started getting going pretty quick. I’m going to start bringing wheels of my own here pretty soon just to keep up.

If you have a kid under 50 pounds, between 1 and 4, I highly recommend these balance bikes. They’re reasonably priced, and totally worth it. The local distributor is a friend of ours, so if you want to get in touch with her you can leave a comment here or fill out the contact form at the bottom of this (and every) page.

Hey there sport fans. Today, the family went to the Oregon Logging Conference. This seems like a strange event for a family of environmentalist, earth conscious, back to the land type organic granola crunchers like us. And it is, but there is one marvelous redeeming feature of this event; lots and lots of machines which on Saturday morning they let kids climb around on (in what is probably a massively bad idea from a liability standpoint). You can see some pictures of Arthur and his friends climbing around here. But in this post, what I want to show you is exactly how dangerous a place the world really is. I went around the displays of machines looking for pictures of everyone’s favorite stick man getting mangled in various ways. It’s amazing all the bad things that can happen to you when you’re not careful around machines. Check it out;

It looks like the project to save Eugene’s Historic Civic Stadium is gaining momentum since I last checked in on them. The eighth oldest minor league ballpark in the country is in Eugene, and unless there is some serious investment in renovations the stadium’s future is in jeopardy. Take a look at the work being done by the Save Civic Stadium group here.