Beanie Babies and stuff - IMO Janice Koweek

This time of year I think of Jan. She owned the world's best toy store during the year's my daughters were growing up. Each year's presents were kept on the third floor until we picked them up Christmas Eve. The Barbie dolls; the Barbie cruise ship; the Princess Leah doll; the games; the kids' table and chairs. Her store had them all.

Walking into The Town Fair, the girls entered a "kid friendly" place. A place of wonder and wonderful surprises and displays. In our small town, all the kids were familiar to Jan and her employees. Every birthday, every Christmas, every time the girls had saved up enough to buy that special Barbie outfit or Star Wars figure, we headed for the store.

And Jan would slip something into our bags of purchases we had not chosen. Something she knew I loved. A beanie baby toy. Soft, cuddly, adorable. She warned her customers that these were not investments, they were toys. Today they are worth about the same or less than they paid for them then. But I have a small collection of them that I treasure. Tiny reminders of a woman who always gave full value to her customers. A woman who gave generously to every local service organization that petitioned for a donation. A woman who knew her customers by name. A woman who was one of the greatest friends I have had in my life.

Every Christmas Eve our family would march into The Town Fair to pick up that year's Christmas gifts and to give Jan and her husband Art our homemade gifts of baked goods, ornaments, and cookies. It was a major part of our Christmas celebration.

Unfortunately, The Town Fair closed its doors before my granddaughters (now 10 and 6) were able to experience its delights. But my daughters treasure the memories spawned there. And I? I have a small collection of Beanie Babies that Jan slipped into our bags. It is hard to believe Jan left us over five years ago.

IMO Jan Koweek
For her myriad acts of kindness to my family and myself, I give thanks.
For her attentive involvement in the large and small matters of my life, I give thanks.
For her sound counsel, advice and unflagging support, I give thanks.

For her steadfast example of how to grow a worthwhile life, I give thanks.
For her keen, often irreverent sense of humor, I give thanks
For her warmth, hospitality, generosity and caring, I give thanks.

By her incredible fortitude in the face of suffering,
Most remarkable expressed in her unfailing kindness and her famous and atrocious puns, I am awed.

For the greatest gift of all, knowing her as friend for thirty-six years, I rejoice and give thanks to God.

Farewell dear friend, you are most sorely missed.

IMO Janice Koweek.

Payroll Taxes and Funding Social Security - A Contrarian Viewpoint

Another December and once again payroll tax cuts are "on the table." I opposed them last December. I oppose their extension beyond the end of the year and I adamantly oppose increasing the payroll tax cuts.

"But why?" You ask. "We thought you were a big liberal. All the liberals support the payroll tax cuts."

I oppose the cuts because:

1. In 2011 they cost roughly $120 billion that did not go to support Social Security benefits and accellerated Social Security's inevitable arrival at "cash flow negative" and the depletion of the Social Security Trust Fund.

"That's what the Social Security Trust Fund is for," proponents argue.

True. But the cuts increase demands on the Trust Fund and decrease the number of years it will last.

2. Social Security has succeeded because it was NOT an unfunded entitlement program. It was fully funded. It is threatened because it will, at current levels of contributions, cease being funded when the Social Security Trust Fund runs dry. Contributions should be increased - by crashing through the ceiling on contributions (currently $106,800 of earned income).

"The shortfall will be funded by other taxes or the general fund," my fellow liberals retort.

Right. How long do you expect THAT to last if Obama loses in 2012 and Republicans gain control of both houses? 5 minutes sounds optimistic to me.

3. Tax cuts have NOT proven to be terribly effective tools for economic recovery. More jobs is the best way to raise government revenues and support safety net programs.

Many of my fellow Americans, liberal, conservative and libertarian have been convinced the population demographic dooms safety net programs like Medicare and Social Security. I believe the greatest threat to these programs is not aging baby boomers, but the ever increasing concentration of our nation's wealth in the hands of a shrinking minority of its citizens and the eroding income of the 99 percent.

I am not sure I am a Progressive. I believe our government should pay for what it spends, not borrow to cover operating expenditures. On the other hand, capital expenditures (i.e. infrastructure, education, research and development) can be amortized over time.

For now, it looks to me like it is the liberals who may in the end be responsible for putting the final nail in the coffin of this country's hard-won safety nets. The radical right must be licking their lips in anticipation.

Too Much Stuff

I clear off the dining room table, disseminating the mail to: business, home, my spouse, myself. But there is still that hand-embroidered holiday tablecloth I have to find a place for. The drop-leaf table that serves as a credenza in my home office stubbornly refuses to let me clear it to the point I can put that leaf down that is SUPPOSED to elevate ONLY for the day I do my household accounts. Medicare stuff for me and my spouse. The camera with pictures still not uploaded to the computer. The Cd's I have yet to copy onto my IPod. The odd notes, forms and notices I don't dare to file until I am absolutely sure they are no longer needed. If I can't clear it off, where the HELL am I going to wrap holiday gifts?

My computer desk is covered with notes on pending matters. Charges on my debit card that have not yet come through. Notices from my health insurance company that have to be matched against invoices from my health providers to guarantee each charge is correct and balanced.

The cards for my current health care coverage and the cards for the coverage that begins January 1. The notices from Medicare for me and for my spouse whose coverage will begin in February. The coupon from JC Penney that is only good until Christmas. The receipts for all those online Christmas gift orders. The note on the electrician's visit - oh right, he came last Thursday. I can toss that one, but where the hell is the invoice?

Three books I am currently in different stages of reading. Four small yellow pads with important notes on the first page that I do not DARE to discard. The binder containing "Medicare and You."

I have way too much stuff and way too little space in which to store it. Every time I try to clear some of it out, it seems to say "Wait, you might need this later."

Time for a bonfire in the backyard?

Doctor's Office - Dial one for an emergency...

I was six years old and passed out. Mom called our family physician, who came to the house, examined me, diagnosed heat exhaustion and recommended rest in a darkened room, cool compresses and avoiding direct sunlight.

I was 20 and getting married in college. Mom found a reputable gyn man, made an appointment for me for a birth control consultation so I could finish college.

I was in my 30s and 40s and called my doctor's office and made an appointment when a health need arose.

Today, I call my doctors office, get voice automation and a selection of choices - Dial 1 for an emergency; dial 2 to renew a prescription; dial 3 to leave a message that might or might not result in a return call. To get an appointment takes a minimum of 2 weeks (for an emergency). Otherwise go to the emergency room.

Mom is now 96 years old. She does not have an answering machine or voice mail. A highly intelligent woman, nevertheless she is technologically challenged. When she calls her doctor's office, she gets confused by the maze of automated choices. The evaluations she receives after her appointments suggest she can access her records online. Mom has never used, let alone owned a computer. Her solution? She writes her doctor a letter and mails it. When he calls back, she might not be home. She is a very active 96 year old, frequently on the go.

Not too many individuals her age live alone and independently. But there must be others out there. Folks who grew up in an age when the family doctor made house calls; when the telephone was used for emergencies; when automation was a unique assembly line procedure used to produce Model T Fords. There does not seem to be a great deal of room in our society for folks like her. Folks that face the terrible decision of giving up their cars in the face of fading capabilities, but who are still very capable of taking care of themselves. Folks who like to make trips not just to the doctor or the grocery store, but to their favorite restaurants, friends, the library, the hairdresser or masseuse. Folks who do not want to reside in Assisted Living Facilities or Nursing Homes or Elder Communities, but find such decisions forced upon them by the exigencies of day to day survival.

In the meantime, she writes a letter to her doctor to avoid his automated telephone system and struggles to face the reality that a mini-stroke may have changed her life forever and robbed her of the rituals that make her life livable.

Thanksgiving - not so much for the "small people"

Unless you live in the antiquated Commonwealth of Massachusetts, renowned for its archaic "blue laws," if you are one of the "small people,"  Thanksgiving Holiday is probably not for you.

The major retailers continue a tradition of creeping closer and closer to the actual holiday for opening their doors to the onslaught of Black Friday shoppers. The earlier the opening hour, the more likely a retailer's employees will be forced to work on the holiday itself.

Then again, who ever said holidays are for everyone? If you live in Massachusetts, finding an open store for that forgotten item that absolutely must grace your holiday table will be a frustrating exercise in futility. Everywhere else in our great nation, you simply run out to your local supermarket and pick it up. Sure this means the less fortunate among us must work on our nation's most family oriented holiday (I do not count Christmas because of its religious orientation), but so what? The people who truly matter (me, myself and I) will get to enjoy the holiday, celebrate family and eat the turkey like true Americans.

We already have decided that Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Veterans' Day are for shopping. Why not Thanksgiving? After all, it practically breaths down the neck of Christmas - the day we devote to the celebration of consumerism. And absolutely nothing should get in the way of that.

Work on small people, so that the more fortunate among us can bask in the glory of the celebration of Thanksgiving. You live to serve. Unless, of course, you happen to live in Massachusetts.

Am I a NIMBY? You Betcha!

Most of my adult life I have listened to disparaging remarks about the "Not in My Back Yard" crowd or "nimbys." Nimbys are accused of wanting all the benefits of industrialization and technology but fighting tooth and nail against using their own areas to produce the products or dispose of their refuse. No smokestacks. No factories. No cell phone towers. No dams. No pipelines. No high tension electrical wires. No exploitation of natural resources. No landfills.

In the meantime, mountaintops have been dumped into savagely polluted valleys in West Virginia and Kentucky, toxic high tech waste has been exported to poor nations, carbon  spewed into the atmosphere, plastics and chemicals have created massive dead zones in our planet's oceans.

Now our fresh water supplies and the very stability of the ground we stand upon are under assault from hydrofracking.

The strongest voices against environmental contamination and alteration frequently come from local opposition - the nimbys. If our only hope is to save our environment tiny little pieces at a time - the nimbys may be our court of last resort. Are they guilty of hypocracy? To some extent. But in the absence of leadership on our state, national and international levels, the movement to stop destroying our environment has to start somewhere.

When it comes to destroying the environment, MY BACK YARD is the planet Earth we all share.

OWS - It's over, Right?

Around 2 a.m. this morning the NYPD began clearing the Occupy Wall Street Ziccotti Park site. Although some film coverage exists, it is scanty. News media was blocked access to the site as were protesters attempting to enter the area. Below are three links I was able to find.

ABC news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_osX6JWdvU
Russia Today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpq-moDIkl8
AlJazeeraEnglish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2pVafxS8ZU

Protesters were informed they could return after the site had been cleaned. The tents and equipment were loaded onto trucks and removed.

At roughly the same time an Occupy Albany site was cleared in the state capital. Over the past week or so, encampments throughout the country have been cleared in roughly the same manner. The procedure of initiating the evictions during the small hours of the night appears to work well from the police standpoint.

I guess this ends Occupy Wall Street. With winter coming on and officialdom cracking down, surely now the protesters will give up and go home and everything will return to "normal."

Or not.