Tragic Suits

America is known for being a country of laws. Founded on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the Congress writes laws, the executive branch executes them and the courts decide their legality, if the laws are challenged on Constitutional grounds.

Lawsuits are an important part of the way we change individual and group behavior to conform with existing law or sometimes by causing a change in law. Lawsuits can claim for all actual damages and can request that punitive damages be paid for pain and suffering which is often based on a multiple of the actual damages - usually three to four times that amount.

This system has worked pretty well over the years, but something has changed.

Lawsuits have become a way for survivors and relatives of victims of tragic events to sue for astronomical amounts, going after anyone or group with deep pockets.

The examples abound.

A family sued when their relative died of lung cancer about 10 years ago. He had smoked for 20 years even though the health risks were well known from the start. He tried but could not quit. Their claim was against the tobacco company for not only producing a product that injured the user’s health but for adding chemicals to the product to make it even harder to resist. The fact that millions of others had been able to quit this dangerous habit over that 20-year period was apparently not an issue. The fact was that this smoker couldn’t.

A jury of their peers, apparently outraged that the company had added ingredients to make their product more irresistible, awarded the family almost $24 billion (that’s with a “b”). That would have made the survivors billionaires and some of the richest people in America - all because their loved one couldn’t quit smoking. The award was immediately thrown out on appeal and there was a confidential settlement. Perhaps it was like the one Kramer settled for from Starbuck’s on a Seinfeld episode. Kramer had spilled coffee on himself and wanted money. He settled for free coffee for life.

Recently, a former professional athlete was mistaken for a wanted criminal who happened to look very much like him. The officer tackled the victim hurting the athlete’s leg. The officer could have found a less invasive mode of arrest. The officer owes his victim an apology as does his department. The city should pay all related medical and rehabilitation costs if any. But that is not what this man is asking for and he has found a lawyer unashamed to sue for $150 million.

A group of about 100 mothers wanted to sue the makers of a birth control product. The company had noticed an error in their product’s 30 day row of pills. They warned customers at the time and issued a recall. Only one package was returned. Most of the users could clearly see the problem and simply turned the product around so the first row became the last row. Now, years later these 100 mothers sued the company saying that because of the error, they gave birth to children they hadn’t planned on and didn’t want to have to support. They wanted the company to pay all of the unwanted children’s expenses through college. Besides the fact that the problem was known and correctable from the start, there is no way to prove that these litigants used the product back then or that they used it according to instructions. In addition, while 90% of all U.S. women of childbearing age use contraception, 50% of all pregnancies are accidental. So apparently they don’t always work even when used properly.

A few years ago, a crazed young man attacked students at an elementary school and killed 20 children and seven adults using an assault rifle. The families have filed suit against the gun manufacturer for producing a weapon of such destructive force for non-military use. While not one of the many reports about this suit has mentioned the amount, it could be for hundreds of millions of dollars. The gun sale was legal, but the parents want the company to no longer be able to produce weapons that could kill innocent people, especially children.

A man with dual citizenship, returned from western Africa after contracting Ebola, a deadly virus. Upon his return to the States, he felt ill and went to the hospital for treatment. When asked where he had been, he failed to tell hospital staff that he had been in a country with a large Ebola contamination problem. The staff did not recognize his illness immediately and by the time they did, it was too late. He died after the staff risked their lives to save him. One of his nurses contracted the virus but was cured. The dead man’s family and the nurse who treated him sued. He should not have died from a cause he failed to reveal the source of and the nurse should have been protected from a disease that the staff was unaware of.

A very large, overweight woman described as having serious cognitive issues living here as an undocumented immigrant, tried to cross a busy highway. An officer rushed to save her from what could have been a fatal accident. The woman resisted his attempts and fought him. He subdued her but then began hitting back. This was caught on video. The officer was immediately fired. The woman was awarded millions of dollars and told that she would be exempt from future deportation.

A 6’5”, morbidly obese Staten Island man with a serious case of heart failure, diabetes and kidney insufficiency related to his massive size, resisted his third arrest after ignoring multiple warnings to cease his illegal street activity. He told officers that he had had enough of these arrests and would not cooperate. They tried to take him into custody. They grabbed him around the only part of his body they could get their arms around - his neck. He resisted and was last heard  saying “I can’t breathe.” He died of a heart attack, a symptom of which is not being able to get air to the heart - one feels breathless.

The arresting officers were found not guilty in his death. The city’s mayor lamented the jury decision and sided with the deceased. He had the city pay the family $6.5 million for this predictable death.

A woman with a long history of alcoholism was at the county hospital for treatment of the effects of this condition. She left on her own, as she was entitled to do, and died while in the hospital’s emergency stairway. It was unclear why she went there and what she was doing in this restricted area. Her dead body was not found for a few days because the security guard did not include it in his rounds. The family sued saying that she should have not been able to get into this emergency stairway and the security officer should have found her dead body earlier. The city gave her foreign family $3.5 million.

It seems clear to me that suits have gone much too far. Attorneys, judges and juries have to say no to these egregious cases of tragic suits motivated more by greed than a need for justice. Perhaps, punitive damages should go into a victim fund instead, not to the litigants who should only get reimbursed for actual damages in order to be made whole.


   
     

Trumping the GOP et al

The GOP establishment, the mainstream media, the Democrats and high tech executives fear a Trump candidacy and are together conspiring to stop Trump from winning the GOP nomination and, possibly, the presidency.

The mainstream media, already not known for integrity or objectivity, has been blatant in its attempts to derail this candidacy. Huffington Post adds a footnote to every article about Trump saying that he is a liar, sexist, racist, etc. Even Fox, the GOP network, has been openly against him from the start.   

Why?

Some will say that he is a sexist because he said some insulting things about one woman: Rosie O’Donnell. Some say he is racist because he said that illegal immigrants are bringing illegal drugs and crime to our land. He is said to be anti-Muslim because he wanted to pause immigrating Muslims, especially from radicalized countries, until we can better evaluate who they are and what they want. Being labeled as racist, sexist, homophobic or anti Muslim make the accused the subject of discrediting ridicule and permissible intolerance.

Some say that Trump is too vulgar, outspoken, narcissistic and dishonest. He is definitely not politically correct.

Few are saying much about his terrible income tax reform ideas or his empty thoughts about replacing the Affordable Care Act or his plans to defeat radical Islam.

But what is it they really don’t like about Mr. Trump? What is Trump advocating?

He wants to seal our southern border, immediately repatriate those still caught sneaking in, and force businesses to EVerify all of their employees to ensure that they are authorized to work. He also wants to get many of those here illegally motivated to return to their homeland and has questioned whether children born to undocumented immigrants should be automatic U.S. citizens. Only one other developed country allows for this, Canada. (Ted Cruz was given birthright citizenship in Canada as a natural born citizen. One can’t be a natural born citizen of more than one country.)

Does that make Trump racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Latino or just against illegal immigration?

Should we continue to have a broken border allowing hundreds of thousands of people to enter our country illegally? Does a country have a right to decide who comes through its borders or to use its available funds to help its own citizens before it takes on the world’s poor? But the Democrats want open borders and eventual citizenship for all interlopers out of compassion and the desire to expand their base. The Republicans want open borders to provide cheap labor while keeping other labor costs down as well. Lower labor costs means more profit,which means more money, which means more power, which means greater freedom and access to luxury.

Looking at the experience of our European allies with refugees pouring in from the Middle East and Africa, should the U.S. let the same thing happen here before setting up a system to fully vet all applicants and develop priorities for admission to our shores? Is our country responsible for taking in refugees from more than 7,000 miles away when their regional neighbors who share their religion, culture, language, values and beliefs refuse to help?

Is it anti-Muslim to want to ensure that our people are safe from the terrorism that has spread cancer-like through the Middle East and Africa? Do we have an obligation to take in more people needing our aid when we have tens of millions of Americans that need our attention and our tax dollars?

Mr. Trump has had the temerity to say that the emperor has no clothes to his fellow Republicans. He has the nerve to say that Bush’s invasion of Iraq and sloppy coverage in Afghanistan have led to the spread of jihadist brutality throughout that region. Republicans have amnesia regarding George II’s eight years. They just remember how nice he seemed and how Republican he was. They forget that he almost destroyed our economy and got us into two unnecessary wars that cost us trillions of dollars and thousands of young American lives.  

Mr. Trump is against American interventions in different parts of the world. He would close many of our 700+ foreign military bases and make the host countries that want us to remain pay the entire cost of our presence. The GOP wants to expand our military and intervene in more struggles around the world. The GOP hawks want more war not less. Mr. Trump would threaten their bloodlust.

Mr. Trump is for free trade but against many of our free trade pacts that have cost Americans millions of factory jobs and its own self sufficiency.We now depend on foreign countries to provide for our needs with electronics, appliances, clothing, and even children’s games. He says that we are being taken advantage of by the Chinese and Mexico. Is he wrong? We are running huge trading deficits with each country.

The GOP establishment cannot forgive him these trespasses from party doctrine. But there are a few of his views that they might dislike even more.

The GOP establishment fear that Trump is not really against abortion no matter what he says. Pro-life is one of the pillars of the modern GOP. The GOP refuses to realize that this issue is a fait accomplis. They believe that Trump is not against gay marriage. This again is a moral issue for Republicans and also is a done deal that will not be reversed. 

The GOP appears to be Trumped. Could the Democrats be next?

What Me Worry? What Should We Fear?

Each day, I watch several network news shows and read several of our country’s major newspapers telling us about the many terrible things that are happening to us. The media provide us with some of the details of each event, make it as frightening as possible and then tell us that we are afraid.

What must we fear and how can we know not to worry?

A few years ago, we learned of an Ebola virus in western Africa that was killing thousands of people in three countries there. We were told that Americans were going over there to save the area from total devastation. Then came the news that one person with dual citizenship returned to the states from one of the affected countries felt sick and went to the hospital but  failed to tell them from whence he came. He died. When it was diagnosed as Ebola, we were told that it could have spread throughout the hospital and into the community. We were told how frightening this prospect was.  An American doctor who worked over there returned with full blown Ebola. He was treated and recovered. A nurse might have contracted it but she was also cured. She and the family of the deceased man both filed lawsuits.

The media told us how frightened we all were. I hadn’t realized that I was afraid. I reasoned that since only one American has died of this terrible plague, it probably was no cause for concern. It wasn’t.

In the past year or so, we have been hearing about unarmed black people who resisted arrest being killed by police. A New York City mayor whose son is biracial told us that he always warns his son about steering clear of the police for fear of what they might do to him. This was after a morbidly obese repeat offender died of a heart attack while resisting his third arrest. The victim was 6’5 weighed over 300 pounds, had severe heart, kidney and diabetes issues. His family successfully sued the city.

In another case, a woman committed suicide while in jail for attacking a police officer. Her family did not put up the $500 bail for her and would not return her calls. The department was sued for allowing her to die.

So should we now fear the police?

In the past year or so, the media have reported that record numbers of migrants have crossed our southern border seeking refuge in our rich country. We are told that many were children and that we could not turn them back immediately because they all fear for their lives. Some Americans are telling us that we should fear this invasion; that it will mean great costs for our taxpayers, lower wages and fewer job opportunities especially for young minority American job seekers who lack a college education. Should we be concerned about the effect of this migration will have on our schools and social welfare programs? Should those of us in the minority community be afraid that our American children will not find entry level jobs?

Now we are learning from news reports that Islamic terrorists, influenced by ISIS and Al Qaeda, are attacking us here in our homeland. There were several failed attempts but two young terrorists planted bombs during the Boston marathon killing several people and wounding many more a few years ago. We learned that the residents were Boston strong and somehow found a way to go on after this tragedy. Then, recently, two young terrorists attacked people at a nursing home and killed 14 people. Some of the victims are suing saying that this not have happened.

Now after these two tragedies we are told that we are at war and under attack. Some recommend that we let no believers in Islam, a religion of peace, to enter our country until the problem is understood and eliminated. Should we fear an-all out invasion by Islamic terrorists?

After years of hearing reports of rising oil prices and fears that with a growing demand by India and China and a diminishing world supply of the liquid gold will cause the price per gallon to rise to $5-$6 and more, we feared that this increased cost would wreak havoc on our economy. Now we are told that there is a glut of oil and we are using less, driving the price per barrel of crude oil to below $30. We still remember the experts from the now-defunct oil newsletter warning us that we will never see $50 a barrel prices which were at the time over $100. We were told to worry then. Now we are told to worry about low oil prices which are saving American drivers more than $1,000 a year per car. The stock market, our nation’s fear index, is way down for the year by more than 2,000 points from the recent high. Investors are frightened by the good news gas prices.

Should we fear low gas prices and a recession?

Recent media reports tell us of a new fear - campus unrest. We are told that groups of students at several universities have protested some lack of political correctness on campus and want the administrators fired for not doing enough to limit acts that might possibly offend some students. The targeted educators are promptly resigning, seeming to be happy to get away from that environment as quickly as possible. Comedians and pundits are threatening to stop visiting campuses because of the spread of protests against free speech that the group disagrees with. It happened at the home of the free speech movement, Berkeley, where some students objected to a liberal hero’s views on religion. He had the temerity to suggest that all religions are not equal even though he is against all of them.  Should we fear the cancer of political correctness?  

The mainstream media seem more concerned with helping us feel than with helping us think with reporting tailored to getting us to react to conditions about which we have insufficient information to minimize pause for reflection. 

So when telling us about a medical crises that could affect us, like Ebola or Mad Cow disease or swine flu, we should be reminded how remote the chances are of us being affected by it especially when following some simple advice.

When reporting about a person being arrested or shot by police, we need to know the background and have the numbers put in perspective. If an unarmed man is killed after attacking a police officer, we need to know what had happened immediately prior and what was this person’s history. 

If there is a problem with illegal immigration, we need to know the current magnitude of the problem, the real reason for the increase, the flaws in our system that allow it to continue and the several remedies to end the problem. We should also be given the actual cost of activity and the costs of the possible remedies.

When reporting on a terrorist threat, it would be helpful to put it in perspective.  How does the untimely death of 95* Americans in the last 14+ years since September 11 caused by terrorists compare with the number of Americans who die of other causes during the same period?

I have found what my greatest fear is. It is the spread of incomplete, sensational, superficial and subjective information leading to knee jerk reactions by the misinformed who have been conditioned to feel rather than to think. It is the overdose of resultant political correctness which in turn stifles free speech in order to avoid any chance of the cognitive dissonance that leads to thought and change.

What me worry? Yes, I do.

* updated as of 7/7/16

Good News

It seems that every time we turn on or read the news, it is bad news. We learn about more violence and suffering in the Middle East; we hear that there was an attack at a school or hospital or workplace by a deranged assailant here in our country. We have daily weather reports of dangerous conditions in different parts of our land and are reminded of the threat from global warming. We are being made aware of more groups of underdogs who are in need of relief - refugees, illegal immigrants, minorities, the aged, the disabled, union members, the middle class, LGBTQ members, the bottom 99% and, most recently, the non billionaires.

All this news can be quite depressing.

Here is some good news.

Recent studies have found that the world poverty is declining with fewer people in the world living in the most extreme levels of poverty. Economic situations are improving in Asia and Africa and even in a few parts of Latin America.

In America more than 16 million people have health coverage for the first time thanks to the Affordable Care Act. The stock market which gauges the worth of American corporations has almost tripled since its low in the start of 2009 of 6,000. Large American banks have submitted to and passed stringent tests of their viability making a repeat of the 2008 recession due to bank failure, less likely. Home values have bounced back across most of the country boosted by low mortgage rates and a recovering economy. The American car business is doing better than ever a far cry from where they were seven years ago, with G.M. and Chrysler facing bankruptcy. Middle class wage earners saw a 2.5% increase in wages this year with inflation pegged at almost 0% led by gas prices that are down by more than half.

The income disparity, called by some the inequality, is less than originally declared by economists. The disparity was magnified by using pre-tax dollars and not considering in-kind benefits. The high income earners have to pay federal, state, local, sales, and property taxes, usually make large charitable contributions and pay huge interest payments. Their net income is much less than their gross and should not include future stock options as it usually is.

Those on the low end of the economic ladder get in-kind benefits from free breakfast and lunch programs for their children in public school, rent subsides, food stamps, free medical coverage (Medicare or Medicaid), utilities subsidies and Earned Income Tax Credits. These benefits could add significantly to a low income’s net. Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour within the next few years would help narrow the income gap as would a simple federal tax code that eliminates all itemized deductions and counts all income sources equally taxable.

And those in the middle have all kinds of untaxed and uncounted fringe benefits from work. People working in large private or public organizations can get half of the FICA payment taken care of by the employer as are the health coverage costs, and the contributions toward a pension or 401k plan. For large city workers like those in San Francisco, the employee fringe benefits could be 33% of the gross income but would not be taxed nor would they be counted as income by these economists.

But still the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor.

The number of homeless is also decreasing with efforts underway to eliminate the problem in the very near future. It has been our nation’s great disgrace that in a land of such plenty there could be people living outside in parks and on sidewalks.

More is being done to train police officers to be more like guardians than warriors, teaching them methods to de-escalate difficult situations. Police departments are equipping officers with body cameras to document arrests. The cameras will also help make police and suspects more attentive to their responses. Improved education and economic conditions should make minority communities feel more a part of rather than apart from the general population thus reducing the drive for violence.

With cities and states are increasing their minimum wages with some going as high as $15 an hour, twice the national minimum, the increased income will make individuals and families more able to enjoy the fruits of their labor while contributing more in taxes and FICA payments which feed our entitlement programs for the aged and disabled.

The nation’s abortion rate is at a longtime low as are the number of teenage pregnancies which are down by 60% from their peak.

More than 190 nations have just signed an accord to fight global warming by reducing harmful emissions from fossil fuels. Climate scientists believe that if the promises are kept, the planet could be saved from going over the brink making life unbearable.

 On the local level, global warming or climate change, as it is also known, has brought great weather to San Francisco for the past four years or so. The downside to this great run of sunny days with little wind or fog or rain has been the worst drought in California history. The good news is that the water shortage that affected most of the state will soon be over thanks to El Nino which will bring much rain for the next three months, if predictions hold. Some people will be reluctant to admit that once again in a few months a longtime drought will really be over.

So there is much good news and reason to be grateful. It should inspire us to continue the trend and fix the problems that still exist. The rich are too rich and the poor is still too poor. We must improve our public education system from K-14, including junior college. We must learn to be much less violent, less narcissistic and less wasteful. We need to bring manufacturing jobs back to our land so that we can be self sufficient and self reliant. We need more integrity, less sensationalism and a greater sense of unity in our vast diversity.

In Search of a Presidential Candidate with a Moderate Agenda

After seeing the possible presidential wannabes, Republican and Democrat, I find myself wanting someone completely different from all of them. On the Republican side, most have not even a whisper of a chance to be the party candidate much less successful in winning next November. On the Democratic side we have a woman who is saying nothing very interesting and a socialist who is, but only because his ideas are so far to the left.

None appears ready to take on some of the real issues facing our country.

While the Republicans are against illegal immigration, none was saying that we must seal our border, tighten our VISA system, and immediately deport those caught sneaking  in, instead of releasing them with hopes of future court dates, until Mr. Trump did. But he went on to say that all here now should be deported and their American born children should not be citizens. The Democratic candidates want full citizenship for those who flouted so many U.S. laws. I would like a candidate who will on one hand secure our border and visa system, require employers to use the EVerify system on all employees, immediately repatriate those caught recently crossing illegally, but on the other, let those who have established roots here stay with legal status but no path to citizenship. I have not heard one candidate suggest we develop a Marshall Plan for Mexico and Central America so that their citizens will want to stay and prosper in their own lands and that some already here might even want to return to their beloved homeland.

None has expressed a desire to reduce our military footprint in the world by closing many of our 700+ foreign bases and for being fully reimbursed by the host countries in which our bases remain. This could save us almost $100 billion a year and make America seem less like an imperialist nation which seeks to control the world. We would also be less likely to be the 911 of the world.

No hopeful is talking about dramatically reforming the federal income tax code to make it much more simple, fair, verifiable and revenue producing. The GOP candidates want to simplify the code but do it to make the rich pay less. The Democrats want the rich to pay for everything. I would like to see a tax code that considers all sources of income equally taxable, that has no itemized deductions or credits, replaced by a standardized deduction, and that has only five or six tax brackets and a lower top tax rate but one that would apply to one’s total income, not just the reduced net after all the itemized deductions and credits currently in place.

We hear no mention of making government more effective in providing services while preventing the massive fraud as we have seen in the Earned Income Credit, unemployment insurance and medical service charges.  Not one has suggested eliminating the penny and even the nickel, coins we never need and which cost more to produce than their worth.

I have heard only one presidential hopeful mention changes in Social Security to make sure it remains solvent, but his idea is to increase benefits threatening its solvency.  I have heard none say that we must crack down on fraudulent payments to recipients no longer with us. None has suggested we raise the contribution from 6.2% to 6.5% while raising the income ceiling from $118,500 to $200,000 nor that we change the way we tax the benefits so that all benefit payments are fully taxable not just 85% subject to tax. Taxes on Social Security benefits go right back into the fund.

And while many have concerns about the Affordable Care Act because of its mandatory individual enrollment, the penalties for non-compliance and the subsidies to healthcare organizations allowing them to charge more, none has recommended changes that would make enrollment voluntary, eliminating penalties. If insurers were able to reject any applicant, it would not have to be mandatory. If applicants are rejected by insurers, they could then get the “public option” which would be government-run like Medicare and Medicaid are now. There would be a share of cost. Rates would decline and subsidies might be unnecessary.  

Neither the liberal Democrats nor the conservative Republicans promised to right a century-old wrong and decriminalize marijuana, until Bernie Sanders did just now, finally..

And there is nothing but silence about ending poverty in our rich land affecting tens of millions of people, including half a million homeless, while much talk is heard about saving the middle class which can barely spend $600 billion on Christmas presents that nobody needs each year and contributes $400 billion to charities. 

No candidate mentions reforming high school curricula to better tailor coursework to student talents and inclinations, substituting courses that are not relevant to many students some that would be.

I have heard no candidate promise to ensure that the U.S. military will stay out of the Middle East conflicts which have no future prospect of being resolved as the countries there are currently configured. I have heard none say that these countries, many of whom were created last century by Western powers after the fall of the Ottoman empire, should be reconstructed to be either Shiite or Sunni but not both. None has called for an independent state for the Kurds.

I think that we need a moderate party with a candidate who is neither just liberal nor just conservative but finds a middle path between both extremes. I believe that we need it very much and very soon.

Making Lives Matter

There has been talk lately about making lives matter. Community members outside St. Louis rioted for more than four months when a young man was killed while attacking a police officer who had stopped him for committing a strong-arm robbery. The people were mad and showed their displeasure by looting and destroying local businesses. They began a campaign saying black lives matter.

So how do we make lives matter?

I think that it starts before the beginning - family planning. Today, half of all pregnancies in America are accidental and 40% of them are aborted. This is no way to make lives matter. Children should be planned by couples who are committed to each other and are willing and able to raise their children responsibly together.

Parents need to display positive role models for their children by living lives that reflect integrity and consideration - lives that matter. Parents are responsible for providing a clean, safe and nurturing environment ensuring that each child gets the best education at school and at home.  Any health issues that arise should be dealt with immediately and not allowed to worsen.

Society is also responsible for ensuring that our children get the education they need and deserve. Teachers should know their students’ strengths and weaknesses and students should have the help they need to get the very most out of their educational experience which in turn will help them develop throughout their meaningful lives. Society is also needed to provide adequate and available medical coverage and facilities to prevent or deal with the onset of potentially serious conditions.

The idea introduced by the President to extend public education to community college, adding two years to the K-12 series, could be a great benefit. It would give students more applied knowledge and skills that could lead to meaningful careers for a comfortable life and help make life matter for the individual and for all those affected by the graduate’s work. This idea has been practiced in Europe for more than a century.

For those who want to go to a four year college, the extra two years of public school could also be used to take all the general education courses required by four year colleges. Students could then enter college as juniors with only two years until graduation, taking mainly courses for their major and minor plus courses they take as electives. This would greatly reduce college costs, enable students to graduate sooner, and would probably get more students to actually complete college.

Life matters when we know what our special talents are and can find ways to apply them for personal and public good. This will help us feel a part of our community, society, culture, and world, not apart from it. People who feel a part of their environment, don’t riot to destroy it. They work to improve it.

The Jewish belief is that we were created in an unfinished, seemingly imperfect, world so that we could live our lives to heal the world (tikkun olam). This pursuit gives our lives meaning.

The challenge according to Eastern religion is to overcome the negative effects of past karma, what we experience as entropy, without creating more. So destroying lives and property to protest loss of life or property is to only prolong and deepen the problem leading to the suffering by creating more disorder/ disorganization/ karma/ entropy. Rioting for months and destroying businesses does not make life matter. It makes life seem to have little or no meaning. 

I believe that it also is important to raise our children with an accepted value system which would include being honest; considering the needs of others; being dependable; maintaining a clean and neat appearance; being non-violent; treating figures of authority with respect; and perhaps, most importantly - doing everything and treating everyone not only as a means, but also as an end.

Society has an obligation to provide a safe and just environment for all of its people. This includes ensuring that all police officers are well-trained in de-escalating potentially violent situations; that they refrain from targeting certain groups; and that they use deadly force rarely, and only as a last resort. A just environment includes efficiently and effectively enforcing laws and prosecuting violations fairly and without bias.

And, I think, that the news media have a significant role to play in making our lives meaningful. We need to be told the whole story as clearly and concisely as possible without editorializing it, embellishing it, sensationalizing it or leaving out important parts. Reports should be objective and be presented without emotion. This kind of coverage would not only provide us with needed information about what is happening around us but it also could show us a model for viewing, understanding and describing our environment - our context.  This would help us make life matter.

As adults, we can make our lives matter by being more concerned about being able to take pride in our efforts, than in our ancestry, affiliation, or our preferences. What we do is a better reflection of who we are than are our names, group memberships or labels. 

Society has a role to play to ensure that there are enough jobs for people who need them and that working people are paid a fair, living wage.  Not earning enough to enjoy the fruits of our labor can make us question whether or how much our lives matter.

I think that life matters when we feel free to express ourselves and also free to keep certain information to ourselves. Our private lives should remain private and not be exposed to invasion or exploitation. When we choose to express ourselves, we can do so thoughtfully and with consideration for the audience. Why waste words on someone who clearly does not care? Why say things that would hurt the listeners by making them feel inadequate? Why bear false witness only to make truth and life have less meaning?

If life is to matter, we need the individual, the family and the community to take responsibility for its maintenance and refinement.

All lives matter as long as we each behave as though they do.

Private and Public Ownership

For thousands of years, the notions of private property and ownership have been basic to Western Civilization beginning before the Old Testament and reinforced again in the New Testament. We own many things. Our possessions include our real estate, cars, furnishings, and clothing as well as less material things like our names, our memories, our talents, our personality, our reputation, our thoughts and, to some degree, other living beings, like our loved ones - human and otherwise.  

There is also the notion of public ownership. Citizens are part owners of their homeland and residents are part owners of their public spaces like parks, highways and bridges. Those who pay for, use, and depend upon public facilities have a vested interest in their continued availability.  Citizens elect representatives to not only make and enforce policies for the greater good, but also to properly maintain our public property.

The private sector which affects the flow of private property is driven by the profit motive, enlightened self-interest. In our western, capitalistic society, the banking industry controls the flow of capital - the cause and effect of private ownership, by deciding to whom to lend money and for whom to deny it. Private sector activity is monitored and impacted by the appropriate government agencies - the public sector - as well as by shareholders, the media and by the consumer.

Private sector workers are primarily motivated by the same profit motive as is their industry. In this sector, in order to ensure maximized profit, employees are evaluated based on their    ability and effectiveness.  Just as private sector firms are competitive, so are their employees. Only the best survive. The better you do, the better you do.

The public sector is controlled by government agencies to provide for the efficient and effective distribution of public services to create and maintain public property. The goal is not maximizing profit.

In the public sector, workers are motivated by a love of service
to the community and/or by the comfort of knowing that their jobs are safe and that their performance will not be used for or against them when it comes to raises and promotions. This environment can foster a spirit of cooperation rather than the competition found in the private sector. But it can also cause some to become less enthusiastic about doing much at work since it makes very little extrinsic difference.

We see this in education where inadequate teachers who have seniority and tenure don’t have to worry about losing their jobs because any layoffs that occur will affect the least senior teachers, no matter how excellent their work has been.

We see this in our city’s and probably our state’s civil service system. Public employees testing for promotional opportunities are not judged on any of their past evaluations (if there are any), no matter how behavior-based, because they could be subjective. The promotion must be based on seniority as well as the results (subjective and/or objective) of a standardized oral or written examination. Seniority and test taking ability can become more important criteria than actual past performance.

The same is true in many public sector agencies where transfers to other units are granted based solely on seniority of the requester and the request.

The effect of this difference in private and public sector performance is striking.

The private sector employee is motivated by fear of job loss and by an ambition to succeed as well as any intrinsic motivations that might be involved such as pride in one’s work, wanting the organization to succeed, being of service and a nice working environment.

The public sector employee can enjoy job security and excellent present and future fringe benefits like a good pension, with some getting 90% of their pay in retirement, and a Cadillac health plan. There also is the satisfaction of serving the public to help make life that much more pleasant for the people affected by their services - police officers save lives and arrest criminals; firefighters save burning buildings and rush people suffering illness or injury to the hospital; nurses and social workers help those in greatest social or physical need. Public sector gardeners can provide the community with beautiful spaces filled with nature as relief from the concrete and metal that surrounds us.

While we each can encourage our private sector by making wise purchases that reward quality, value and creativity, we must motivate our public service sector by treasuring our public property and insisting that it be maintained. Just as we should take good care of our private possessions, we can also take that same responsibility for our public property.

Do you see a public garbage can with its door flung open by someone who had been digging in it for food or recyclables? Stop and close it back up. It’s your can on your property.

Do see someone sleeping on the sidewalk or in the road? See if the person needs help or call the number to get city services for the person. Your sidewalk or road was not made for sleeping on and humans deserve a better place to sleep.

Have you noticed that they stopped work on a street repair leaving everyone to navigate their way over wooden planks and large barriers? Contact the appropriate city agency to get the work started again.

This just happened in Pacific Heights at a busy intersection. Workers began replacing the four corner curb cuts but left the job unfinished and never came back leaving wooden planks and large plastic road barriers behind. This absence went on for almost a month and during that time it appears that only one person called in to have the job completed. Hundreds of people passed by this unfinished work everyday. Shop owners saw it. Shoppers saw it. Police officers saw it. And yet only one person called in and had it finished.

It was “the Emperor’s New Clothes” in reverse with only one person declaring that the emperor (intersection) has too many clothes (obstacles).

Neighbors saw their park being neglected by Recreation and Park personnel. Weeds were everywhere, trees were dying, park benches were battered, cigarette butts were everywhere in this “no smoking” area that lacked proper signage or enforcement and the pavement was cracked. After many years of passive acceptance by most park visitors, a few concerned public property owners, have begun work to redo the park. They meet with their district supervisor and with park officials to motivate them to do what is needed to fix the park and then to properly manage it. These neighbors are exercising their ownership of the park.

So just as we need the public to keep the private sector from its potential excesses, we need private individuals to keep the public sector from its potential shortcomings - inefficiency and ineffectiveness with the strong scent of impunity.