tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78744779361455357112024-02-20T14:08:12.600-05:00Bay State BrahminAndrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.comBlogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-82654446879378937982014-05-28T08:00:00.000-04:002014-05-28T08:00:04.669-04:00Politics: Where Up is Down and Good is Bad<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Last week,
David Brooks began a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/23/opinion/brooks-really-good-books-part-i.html">two</a>-<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/opinion/brooks-really-good-books-part-ii.html">part</a>
series on eight books that have had a major influence in his own life (a summer
reading list of sorts, should you want to learn about the inner-workings of
Brooks’ soul). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
One of the
books on his list is the American political classic <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All the King’s Men</i>, by Robert Penn Warren. Brooks writes that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">King’s Men</i> shows “the way good can come
from bad, and bad can come from good,” and “asks if in politics you have to
sell your soul in order to have the power to serve the poor.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
12 years ago,
my senior year English teacher gave me <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">King’s
Men</i> with an inscription that exclaimed, “Forewarned is Forearmed!” Reading
the novel at the age of 18, I understood it from the perspective of an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">outsider </i>to politics—someone who had
been interested in the craft of governing from a young age, but whose
experience with the daily give and take of compromise and contradiction was
cabined to the four walls of our New England style town meetings, which to this
day remain not particularly representative of how government works in big
cities, state capitals, or the halls of Congress.</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj13PWL8JyBvQaoy2TkxZQphQx64ODIx568lx6tbVtk3ovAlLBXk87-LpjPF-pjFcypyI4s_bvvXrBpv1JaFasNAd_r4LEdJSHv4j5gU0P8pDlJDCsajRW431zHxNOUWWXD1rnGOIDNB_Ba/s1600/huey+long.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj13PWL8JyBvQaoy2TkxZQphQx64ODIx568lx6tbVtk3ovAlLBXk87-LpjPF-pjFcypyI4s_bvvXrBpv1JaFasNAd_r4LEdJSHv4j5gU0P8pDlJDCsajRW431zHxNOUWWXD1rnGOIDNB_Ba/s1600/huey+long.jpg" height="320" style="cursor: move;" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Senator Huey Long (D-LA) (aka "Willie Stark")</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I picked up <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">King’s Men </i>again recently, now a
self-styled “insider” of the political process, albeit one who is ever-wary of
the obsession that comes with the incessant machinations people go through to
inhabit the inner most circles of power (a means that all too often becomes the
end—HT to Professor Roger Porter for this piece of wisdom).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The impetus
to my second read was a discussion I overheard outside my office, but inside
the NYC political world about the results of a report. The takeaway was that it
was “good” that the data revealed gross inequities in city services because
that narrative could generate press, which could, in turn, inure to the benefit
of both the principal and the New Yorkers who were not being adequately served.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It
immediately brought to find a passage from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">King’s
Men </i>in which Willie Stark is seeking to oust Dolph Pillsbury, the political
boss of Mason County, Louisiana. Willie had little fortune upending Pillsbury’s
regime until an accident on a fire escape at a local schoolhouse shoddily put
together by a corrupt associate of Pillsbury’s changed the political
environment forever.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
[S]ome of the brickwork gave and the
bolts and bars holding the contraption to the wall pulled loose and the whole
thing fell away, spraying kids in all directions. Three kids were killed
outright. They were the ones that hit the concrete walk. About a dozen were
crippled up pretty seriously and several of those never were much good
afterward. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
It was a piece of luck for Willie.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Only in
politics could an epic tragedy in which kids perish be accurately and coldly
declared a “piece of luck” for a challenger. And yet, as Warren noted, such “luck”
need not be actively exploited. “Willie didn’t try to cash in on the luck. He
didn’t have to try. People got the point.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Indeed, in
politics, what challengers often need to win is to have misfortune befall a
stronger candidate (frequently the incumbent)—misfortune that typically
manifests in suffering for real people and their communities.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
This is not
a “problem” that requires solving, but is instead an intractable, if unnerving
truth about democratic politics. There are only so many seats. What matters is
not whether a challenger “takes advantage” of misfortune to rise to power, as
Stark went on to do, but instead whether that challenger (a) understands the
true nature of the tragedy and is not blind to the real suffering that enabled
her rise; and (b) views the opportunity presented by fate as an opportunity to
do good <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">by the People</i>, rather than by
herself.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Politics
takes <a href="http://hlrecord.org/?p=10995">thick skin</a>—which is to say
that you need to be able to take a punch, but also have the courage to throw
one when the moment is right, sure in the belief that while aiming to win is
anything but a selfless act, it is worth fighting for when motivated by the
desire to serve and not be served.</div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-25999934931357314852014-05-20T08:00:00.000-04:002014-05-20T08:37:27.621-04:00Women, Family, and the Expectations of Leadership<div class="MsoNormal">
“Women do almost as well as men today as long as they don’t
have children.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
-- Professor <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/business/economy/04leonhardt.html">Jane
Waldfogel</a>, Columbia University, 2010</div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/08/17/nyregion/17bloomberg-eeoc-ruling.html?ref=nyregion">EEOC
v. Bloomberg L.P</a>.</span></i><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">, 778 F. Supp. 2d 458, 485-486 (S.D.N.Y. 2011), </span>a
major gender discrimination lawsuit, Chief Judge Loretta A. Preska of the
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York declared,
“[M]aking a decision that preferences family over work comes with
consequences…perhaps unfortunately, women tend to choose to attend to family
obligations over work obligations thereafter more often than men in our
society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Work-related consequences
follow.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">We
see this pattern not only in the fast-paced, high-pressure world of financial
journalism, but across a spectrum of jobs, including the highest leadership
posts in our government. While the last three men nominated to the Supreme
Court (Samuel Alito, John Roberts, and Stephen Breyer) have all been married
(with seven children among them), the last three women (Elena Kagan, Sonia
Sotomayor and Harriet Miers) have all been single and without
children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As freelance writer Robin Marty <a href="http://www.care2.com/causes/want-to-be-a-supreme-court-justice-dont-have-kids.html">noted</a>,
“When men are able to rise to high-powered positions, dominating the roles of
CEO, upper level management, and yes, Supreme Court Justice and even President,
all while at the same time being able to raise a family, but women can only
pursue these options without being encumbered by children, there is still a
major hurdle to overcome.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Others,
however, appear nonplussed by the sacrifices demanded by politics or business
at its highest levels. As Kathryn S. Wylde, President of the Partnership for
New York City, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/nyregion/bloomberg-discrimination-suit-ruling-renews-work-life-debate.html">told</a>
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times </i>in the wake of
Judge Preska’s historic ruling: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
I am among the first generation of ‘liberated’ women
professionals who took for granted we would have to sacrifice personal time and
family life to achieve our professional goals. Younger women tend to assume
‘equality in the workplace,’ along with the notion that they can and should
‘have it all.’ I don’t think that is possible for men or women, and certainly
not in the competitive environment of New York City.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Thus, before
we can even figure out how to overcome the hurdle Marty described, we must
first decide how or whether to characterize it as a hurdle in the first place.
This effort requires us to examine the appropriate balance between professional
duty to our community and our personal lives.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
This week,
Gordon Marino, a professor of philosophy at St. Olaf College, <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/17/a-life-beyond-do-what-you-love/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0">wrote</a>
in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times </i>Opinionator, “Our
desires should not be the ultimate arbiters of vocation. Sometimes we should do
what we hate, or what most needs doing, and do it as best we can.”<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
On the one
hand, it seems plain that people need and deserve to live enriching lives beyond
the toils of our labor. If, as a great <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMdR9iAflKo">ancient philosopher</a> once
said, humans are “luminous beings” and not merely “crude matter”, it stands to
reason that our professional passions are but a small part of our souls.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
On the
other, as Christina Rossetti wrote in her poem-turned-Christmas-carol <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In The Bleak Midwinter</i>, each of us must <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do our part</i>,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>particularly the “wise men” who have been <a href="http://baystatebrahmin.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-accidents-of-birth-opportunity.html">granted</a>
opportunity to little credit of their own. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And yet,
what Marino misses in his piece—and what so many people who view work and life
as a “zero sum” game fail to understand—is how love, family, and personal
fulfillment can and do enable professional success and should be viewed as
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">assets</i> rather than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">liabilities</i>, particularly among leaders
in business, politics, and law.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It’s no
secret that finding internal peace and happiness in life is brutally difficult,
even for those blessed with the material trappings of the developed world.
Waving that quest off as if it is a distraction from our core functions is
neither helpful nor realistic. Indeed, while some of us can dupe ourselves into
thinking that somehow we can do the professional without regard to the
personal, life eventually hits you upside the head and it becomes crystal clear
that the foundation of success in any realm—the font from which all-else flows—is
intimate human connection: familial, fraternal, romantic.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
* <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>* <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>* <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>* <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>* <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>*</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
While it may
be acceptable to expect professional athletes or master chess players to have
an almost monastic devotion to their craft—the skill and dexterity needed to
succeed at the highest level being almost directly tied to their <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2013/08/psychology-ten-thousand-hour-rule-complexity.html">hours</a>
of practice—political leaders are different animals. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Being a
“political junkie” does not dovetail with being an effective representative.
Sure, politicians need to have an understanding of the levers of power and
should have a strong historical/procedural understanding of the body to which
they are elected; but successful leadership in government requires so much
more. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It requires an
understanding of the diverse perspectives of your constituents, while simultaneously
being confident in one’s own conception of <a href="http://baystatebrahmin.blogspot.com/search/label/First%20Principles">First
Principles</a>. It requires a keen awareness of the values of the community and
the emphasis placed on certain elements of life that may not at first glance
appear to demand prioritization. And perhaps more than anything else, it
requires empathy with the real problems of real people (as opposed to obsession
with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">political </i>problems of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">political </i>people).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the
spring of 2001, a friend who was graduating from Hamilton-Wenham Regional High
School gave me a wallet-sized yearbook photo with a lovely message on the back,
which I carry to this day. Well aware of my outsized ambitions, my friend took
pains to urge me to “never close my mind to a family life.” It was an
incredibly poignant piece of advice from someone one year my senior by the clock,
but ages ahead in the consideration of what factors make a life worth
living. </div>
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<br /></div>
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And yet,
even as I recognize the prescience of her words, it is a challenge to beat back
the uncertainty that comes from a political world that demands more of us than
most are willing to give and, perhaps more importantly, more than it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should </i>demand if we want our
representatives to have the perspective of a well-rounded existence that is so
cherished by the polity at large.</div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-62889298011088672992014-05-19T08:00:00.000-04:002014-05-19T08:00:06.008-04:00From the Imperial City to the Outskirts of Empire<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 22.5pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">New
York is the meeting place of the peoples, the only city where you can hardly
find a typical American.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">-- Djuna Barnes,
Author (1892-1982)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Great
Library of Alexandria, founded around 300BC, was the locus point of the ancient
world for philosophers, mathematicians, and scholars. At its height, the
Library held 750,000 scrolls, which flowed into its shelves from the great
empires of Greece, Egypt, and Babylon, and burgeoning civilizations as far away
as India. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Alexandria,
positioned at the crossroads of the developed world, soon became the world's
intellectual capital and those who came to study understood that the knowledge
amassed there was only as useful as it was widely disseminated—not only to the
power centers of the old world, but to the small cities and towns on the
periphery. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Two thousand
years later, the United States is the closest thing we have to a global empire
and the center of that empire is New York City. Just as the learned of Alexandria
gravitated to the great political and cultural centers of the ancient world, so
today many Americans flock to New York and other metropolises to ply their
trade.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
There is
something deeply inspiring about this continued migration. As E.B. White famously
wrote in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Here is New York</i>, while many
native New Yorkers “<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">take[]
the city for granted,” there is another New York—</span>“<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the New York of the person
who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something...that
accounts for New York's high-strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its
dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements.”</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And yet for
all the romantic greatness of the immigrant/migrant story of New York, there is
also an undercurrent of danger in its magnetism: the potential for a growing
disconnect between the global power centers and the majority of the world’s
population that lives in what a friend once described to me as “the outskirts
of empire.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As Thomas
Edsall of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times </i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/30/opinion/edsall-will-liberal-cities-leave-the-rest-of-america-behind.html">wrote</a>
last month in a column titled, “Will Liberal Cities Leave the Rest of America
Behind?” many of the cities that are now on the leading edge of progressive
politics in America have significant built-in advantages not available to most
cities and towns on the “outskirts”:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">[M]ajor
research universities; financial and high-tech corporate centers; substantial
and strong artistic and intellectual communities. Pittsburgh, for example, has
Carnegie Mellon, metropolitan Boston has Harvard and M.I.T., Seattle has
Microsoft and Amazon, and New York has its own varied, almost endless resources…These
advantages are the exception, <span style="background: white;">not the rule.</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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In the end,
Edsall is left to ask, “<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">whether
the current left-leaning urban agenda is restricted to small elite of well-off
municipalities with substantial resources.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It doesn’t help matters that the media is
centered in and around these largely liberal metropolises. Indeed, for generations,
the media has helped fuel more than a little navel-gazing in centers of empire;
from the “<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4d/Steinberg_New_Yorker_Cover.png">New
Yorker’s View of the World</a>” to “Beltway Insiders” to Bostonians—whose very
nickname for their City, “The Hub,” offers a glimpse into the psyche of the
Gateway to New England.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">This narcissistic tendency makes getting out
of the bubbles and into the back roads of the empire all the more important. As
Deborah Fallows, author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dreaming in
Chinese</i>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/travel/an-intimate-view-of-america-from-above.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&rref=travel">wrote</a>
this weekend, “</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">America
is full of places with stories to tell, where generations had spent their lives
building, losing and rebuilding, or where newcomers migrate, like pioneers, to
strive toward their dreams.”</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of course,
the need to assess the problems of the periphery need not blind us to the
problems of the center of empire. Even Manhattan, which includes <a href="http://www.citylab.com/housing/2014/03/americas-1000-richest-neighborhoods/8610/">several</a>
of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country, does not lack for significant
social and economic ills. For all its wealth and power, the centers of the empire,
like the outskirts, are not immune from poverty and suffering.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Nevertheless,
just like the knowledge amassed and uncovered in Alexandria, New York’s progressive
prosperity or Boston’s quest to become the City on a Hill mean little if their
lessons are not spread beyond the walls of the metropolis to the rest of the country. For that to happen, people in cities and small towns
have to focus more on what they have in <a href="http://baystatebrahmin.blogspot.com/2014/03/part-ii-america-united-valuing-diverse.html">common</a>
than by what separates them and avoid falling into the trap of believing that
the future of American politics rural interests against urban needs.</div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-86151843616302062862014-05-15T08:00:00.000-04:002014-05-15T08:00:05.088-04:00Transparency and Tyranny of the Majority<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">“<span style="background: white;">Anonymous
pamphlets, leaflets, brochures and even books have played an important role in
the progress of mankind… It is plain that anonymity has sometimes been assumed
for the most constructive purposes.</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">-- </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Talley v. California</span></i><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>362
U.S. 60<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(1960)</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">In January 1776, a short
pamphlet titled</span> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Common Sense</span> </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">hit the streets of Boston and other cities
and towns throughout the New World, calling on people to take up arms against
Britain in a fight for independence. Within months, it became one of the most
widely read books in the colonies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6oWIJMKR4wgsdMYzWgBpP2ZkQd3w2MzuLpCkZGIaUaKtpjpv1Ks-XFki29RhhvRF4hs0GXtnPco6sLaapsmhuun5qY0t4EO_p5IiJluDyV4T5p9K2_8jJw18HbYsrUls7DbtReNGXLPn3/s1600/common+sense.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6oWIJMKR4wgsdMYzWgBpP2ZkQd3w2MzuLpCkZGIaUaKtpjpv1Ks-XFki29RhhvRF4hs0GXtnPco6sLaapsmhuun5qY0t4EO_p5IiJluDyV4T5p9K2_8jJw18HbYsrUls7DbtReNGXLPn3/s1600/common+sense.jpg" height="400" width="255" /></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Given that its very content was
treasonous, the pamphlet was published anonymously, with knowledge of its true
author (the patriot Thomas Paine) remaining a secret into the spring of the
year of Independence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
This week, NYC
Councilmember Ben Kallos (D-East Side/Roosevelt Island) introduced a bill to
create a centralized, public, online freedom of information law (FOIL) system
in the City of New York. As <a href="http://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/government/5024-transformative-foil-transparency-bill-verge-council-introduction">reported</a>
in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gotham Gazette</i>, “<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Requests would be entered
electronically and anyone would be able to see who is requesting what
information from which agency.” Other cities—from Oakland to Chicago—already
make names of FOIL requesters public. And indeed, in New York State, FOIL
requests themselves are public documents subject to disclosure without
redaction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Nevertheless, Kallos’ bill
is likely to raise questions about the intersection between government
transparency and personal privacy. When should citizens be forced to disclose
their communications with government? Are there circumstances in which
anonymity is needed to avoid unwarranted harassment?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">These
questions continue to pose challenges, not just with regard to FOIL, but also
in the context of campaign finance disclosure—as <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/05/02/way-forward-campaign-finance/5K4ge5Wl40fUGoeQQbU0sL/story.html">discussed</a>
by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Globe </i>columnist Scot Lehigh last
week—and lobbying disclosure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Indeed,
New York’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), which under a 2011 law is
responsible for determining whether a particular advocacy organization should
receive an exemption from </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">disclosure if their donors faced “harm,
threats, harassment, or reprisals” because of their support, has had to
grapple with the implications of a subjective regime of anonymity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Many groups
across the political spectrum (from abortion rights groups to the conservative
New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms) have <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Donor-secrecy-remains-big-issue-5183635.php">sought</a>
exemptions, including the New York Civil Liberties Union, which is typically on
the side of transparency (<u>disclosure</u>: NYCLU is a former employer).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">While you could
be forgiven for thinking that these groups are simply trying to protect their
donor base, regardless of the actual threat posed, there are very real reasons
to worry about the effects that full and complete disclosure of this kind would
have on speech in America.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">More than 50 years ago, the Supreme Court
first discussed the importance of anonymous speech in </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Talley v. California</span></i><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>362
U.S. 60<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(1960), which struck down
a Los Angeles ordinance forbidding the distribution of literature without the
name and address of the individual(s) who prepared/distributed it. The Court opinion
was framed by two major goals—to prevent retaliation against unpopular views
and to encourage free and open dialogue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">More recently, in </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">McIntyre v</span><span style="background: white;">.</span> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Ohio
Elections Commission</span></i><span style="background: white;">, 514 U.S. 334
(1995), the Court reiterated the strong interest in anonymous speech:</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Protections
for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing dissenters to
shield their identities frees them to express critical minority views…Anonymity
is a shield from the tyranny of the majority… It thus exemplifies the purpose
behind the Bill of Rights and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect
unpopular individuals from retaliation…at the hand of an intolerant society.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">We may well believe that there
is no good reason for corporations or deep-pocketed donors to be able to “hide
in the shadows” or no good reason why an individual’s request of their
government should be protected from public scrutiny, but America has a strong
tradition of supporting anonymous speech on matters of public controversy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">As we continue the effort to
improve the free flow of information and respond to the flood of money in
politics unleashed by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Citizens United </i>and
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">McCutcheon</i>, we must not allow our
desire to strengthen our democracy to undermine this essential bulwark of free
and robust speech.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-89721128294553423212014-05-13T08:00:00.000-04:002014-05-13T08:00:06.764-04:00Breaking Down Richard Tisei’s 6-Point Jobs Plan for the 6th District<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Richard
Tisei, the Republican nominee for Congress in the 6<sup>th</sup> District of
Massachusetts, recently <a href="http://www.salemnews.com/opinion/x2117384285/Tisei-A-six-point-jobs-plan-for-the-Sixth-District/print">unveiled</a>
a six-point jobs plan to spur economic development in Northeast Mass. While
politicians always like to exaggerate their potential influence over local
economies, Tisei’s plan is disappointing for its lack of creativity and its
failure to take into account some of the greatest assets of Essex County and
its surrounding communities. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
That’s not
to say that every element of Tisei’s plan is without merit. His emphasis on the
need to better link economic development with workforce development is long
overdue and greater flexibility for local economic development agencies to
direct workforce dollars will better enable regions to create human capital
that is responsive to industry need.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfJiPGMqRAaxSifSvqUeD198XKtpCpZGZJU2q1WRe7KM0gIbXm3WGAfBiogJDqJehui4lf1QOV2jLNzETmhsmW7sNRqAINXlImJRqep3fP0_oRFy24qb8DePgcGdaisSgr2xvquKzT7f3N/s1600/military+spending+2011.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfJiPGMqRAaxSifSvqUeD198XKtpCpZGZJU2q1WRe7KM0gIbXm3WGAfBiogJDqJehui4lf1QOV2jLNzETmhsmW7sNRqAINXlImJRqep3fP0_oRFy24qb8DePgcGdaisSgr2xvquKzT7f3N/s1600/military+spending+2011.gif" height="212" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Unfortunately,
that’s where Tisei’s good ideas end and the parade of protectionism and tax
giveaways begins. From ginning up reasons to maintain defense spending that
ballooned to over $700 billion in 2011 (more than the next 11 highest spending
nations, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">combined</i>—see <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/07/everything-chuck-hagel-needs-to-know-about-the-defense-budget-in-charts/">chart</a>)
and targeting tax breaks at specific industries rather than at investment writ
large, to the traditional GOP talking points of slashing corporate taxes (despite
the fact that many corporations <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/26/us-usa-tax-corporate-idUSBREA1P04Q20140226">pay</a>
next to nothing in income tax) and environmental/financial regulations designed
to maintain stability in the markets, Tisei’s plan does little to lay the
groundwork for private sector growth. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
A true jobs
agenda for the 6<sup>th</sup> District takes advantage of Northeast
Massachusetts’ historic strengths while also being aware of the trends of the
21<sup>st</sup> century global economy. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It means <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(1)</b> building on the success of the <a href="http://baystatebrahmin.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-magic-semicircle-future-of-route.html">Route
128</a> job corridor by providing federal support for the creation of
sustainable, walkable communities that attract creative class workers. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It means <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(2)</b> laying the foundation for growth
(and spurring construction jobs in the process) by investing heavily in
improved infrastructure—both modern energy grids and public transit, such as
the long-proposed Blue Line extension to Central Square, Lynn.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It means <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(3)</b> supporting <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">mixed-use projects along the waterfront, like those
ongoing in Haverhill, Gloucester, and communities throughout Essex County, which
promise to create an “active” street life by</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> <a href="http://baystatebrahmin.blogspot.com/2014/03/an-eternal-asset-making-most-of-essex.html">leveraging</a>
our “working waterfront” and recognizing the importance of tourism to Essex
County’s economy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It means <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(4)</b>
making work pay by boosting the income of the 6<sup>th</sup> District’s poor and working class residents through an <a href="http://baystatebrahmin.blogspot.com/2014/02/tax-time-part-i-continued-promise-of.html">expansion</a>
of the Earned Income Tax Credit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It means <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(5)</b>
looking ahead to the industries of tomorrow, especially renewable energy,
rather than subsidizing the slow death of industries that have fled the U.S. as
globalization has taken root. Instead, Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget—which stands
as a midterm priority list for the GOP—<a href="http://beta.congress.gov/congressional-record/2014/4/8/house-section/article/H2996-3">slashes</a>
</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">civilian research and development
by $92 billion from the current baseline over the next decade.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Cities and towns throughout Northeast
Mass. have historically relied on clean energy. For over 150 years, Lawrence
has embraced hydroelectric power—from the Great Stone Dam in 1848 to the launch
of a hydroelectric plant powering 7000 homes a year, in 1981. In Beverly,
Salem, and Marblehead, windmills were grinding corn and bark as early as the 17<sup>th</sup> and
18<sup>th</sup> centuries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">With an immense coastline, a regulatory environment
supportive of renewables, and countless students committed to investing their
futures in the field, the 6<sup>th</sup> District is the perfect laboratory for
the transformative energy technology of tomorrow. </span>Our institutions of
higher learning—from <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Gordon
College in Wenham and Endicott College in Beverly to Salem State University in
Salem, Northshore CC campuses throughout the region, and Merrimack College in
North Andover</span>—must be nodes of innovation. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Lastly, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(6)</b> with home prices increasingly out-of-reach in many towns in the
District and long-term trend lines for Millennials showing a shifting
preference for renting/apartment living, the federal government must reassess
current tax breaks that disproportionately benefit the wealthy (such as the
mortgage interest deduction) and boost tax credits for investment in smaller,
more environmentally-efficient homes that permit greater density near transit
hubs in places like Salem and Newburyport.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">That’s a true 6-point plan for
economic growth in the 6<sup>th</sup> District—one that puts private sector
innovation at the core, not through tax giveaways and weakened regulation, but by
boosting the human and physical infrastructure needed for long-term,
sustainable development that can support middle class jobs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-58210177117315974292014-05-12T08:00:00.000-04:002014-05-12T08:00:09.104-04:00Late Off the Blocks: Head Start and the Formative Years<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 1995,
Betty Hart, a professor of Human Development at the University of Kansas, and
Todd R. Risley, a professor of Psychology at the University of Alaska,
published a <a href="https://www.unitedwayracine.org/sites/default/files/imce/files/SOH%20The%20Early%20Catastrophe%20-%20The%2030%20Million%20Word%20Gap%20by%20Age%203%20-%20Risley%20and%20Hart%20-%20summary.pdf">study</a>
examining the difference in language heard by infants of varying socio-economic
backgrounds. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The study found
that <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">the average low-income child heard
just over 600 words per hour, less than half the average total of working class
children (1251/hour), and less than one-third that of the average child in a
professional family (2153/hour). Using some rudimentary arithmetic, the
researchers projected that wealthy kids heard about 30 million words by age 3,
while poor kids heard only 10 million. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR59i6_NRY82BlgkPP750yRHEC9O3pyn_3qimiwh5pjrxJ8MWShrTMp-EWfU3qXMjilVjYTy8yP4SoTGEw_qyhps592rwfX53eDoGUeDYaMiIpLmvw_0Kc1DLMWjQncW7JxS2MHbvaFgD7/s1600/vocab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR59i6_NRY82BlgkPP750yRHEC9O3pyn_3qimiwh5pjrxJ8MWShrTMp-EWfU3qXMjilVjYTy8yP4SoTGEw_qyhps592rwfX53eDoGUeDYaMiIpLmvw_0Kc1DLMWjQncW7JxS2MHbvaFgD7/s1600/vocab.jpg" height="316" width="320" /></a>This
divergent led to what the researchers described as an “even-widening gap”
between poor and wealthy children, whereby the poor children <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">not only “had smaller vocabularies than did
children of the same age in professional families, but they were also adding
words more slowly.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">More recent science also supports this
conclusion. A 2013 <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/desc.12019/abstract">study</a>
out of Stanford found that </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">children in different socio-economic groups display dramatic
differences in their vocabularies by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">18
months</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">Thus, it should come as
little surprise that Head Start—the pioneering Great Society program designed
to improve early learning for poor children—has had limited success in closing
the achievement gap. As noted in a <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/10/the-benefits-of-mixing-rich-and-poor/?ref=opinion">column</a>
by UC-Berkeley Professor David Kirp this weekend, despite recent improvements
to the program, “</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">a
2012 federal evaluation that used gold-standard methodology and concluded that
children who participated in Head Start were not more successful in elementary
school than others.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Kirp goes on to argue that one of the
essential flaws in Head Start is that it only applies to poor students, in part
because branding Head Start as a program for the poor weakens its political
power, but more importantly because it concentrates the effects of poverty
rather than allowing poor students to interact with and learn from their better
educated peers. This interaction has been shown to help poor students narrow
the vocabulary/literacy gap with their more well to do contemporaries without
hurting the more privileged group.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">While socioeconomic mixing in early childhood
education can help to mitigate the effects of the “word gap”, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">we need to do more to narrow/eliminate the
gap from emerging in the first place. This means placing a greater emphasis on
the formative years 0-3, as well as providing new parents with the skills and
tools they need to succeed</b>. Simply put, Head Start is getting out of the
proverbial blocks too late for many students to catch up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Creating children may come naturally to
humans, but parenting those children is anything but. And yet despite the
incredible importance and difficulty of parenthood, government offers <a href="http://hlrecord.org/?p=12812">little</a> in the way of supports for
soon-to-be or new parents. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">One program that has been effective in not only boosting pre-natal care
but in improving parenting practices, is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Early
Head Start</b> (EHS). Launched in 1995, EHS is designed to assist low-income
women and families on a variety of childhood development/parenting mattes. A
major <a href="http://policyforchildren.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Effectiveness-of-Early-Head-Start.pdf">study</a>
of the program in 2005 found that EHS </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">children “performed better than did
control children in cognitive and language development, displayed higher
emotional engagement of the parent and sustained attention with play objects,
and were lower in aggressive behavior. Compared with controls, Early Head Start
parents were more emotionally supportive, provided more language and learning
stimulation, read to their children more, and spanked less.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
[As
previously noted in this <a href="http://baystatebrahmin.blogspot.com/2014/04/social-impact-bonds-spurring-innovation.html">space</a>,
Early Head Start or similar programs are perfect vehicles for Social Impact
Bond financing.]</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.0pt;">This
conclusion isn’t surprising given that </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the vast majority of parents want to do well by their kids—they simply
need the tools to do so</b>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Indeed, the
fact that many parents do not read to their children as much as would be ideal
is not a “choice” in the traditional sense of the term. Not only are many
parents unaware of the benefits of frequent verbal interaction with infants,
but they also may lack the resources needed to simply have books/newspapers in
the home to read. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For instance, <span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">parents who <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/startearly/ch_1.html">are</a> given books and “prescriptions
for reading” by their children’s pediatricians have been found to be </span><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ867301.pdf">four
times</a> </span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">more
likely to read and share books with their children.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
This fall,
New York City will introduce universal pre-K for the first time. It’s a huge
step for equity and opportunity for our city’s youth and it is one of many bold
ideas that Mayor de Blasio is putting into motion. But even as we navigate the
challenges of pre-K, we should be planning for that next great leap forward in
early childhood education—to the formative years where the gap first emerges—so
that when the starting gun of life goes off, all children can get out of the
blocks. </div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-33666807908563678312014-05-08T08:00:00.000-04:002014-05-08T08:00:11.297-04:00Facts and First Principles of American Foreign Aid<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">“</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">If our Founding Fathers wanted us to care about the rest of
the world, they wouldn't have declared their independence from it.”</span> <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">-- Stephen Colbert<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Last week, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wall Street Journal </i>released the results
of a new <a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJNBCpoll04232014.pdf">poll</a>
on Americans view of foreign policy. As is often the case with foreign affairs,
Americans seem to simultaneously desire tougher engagement and greater
isolationism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">55 percent of those surveyed
believed that “We need a president who will present an image of strength that
shows America's willingness to confront our enemies and stand up for our
principles." Indeed, as applied to President Obama, 36 percent of
respondents agreed that “He is too cautious and lets other countries control
event,” compared to only 15 percent who claimed he is “too bold and forces
issues with other countries.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">At the same time, 47 percent of
Americans are calling for a “less active” foreign policy, with only 19 percent
calling for a more active policy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Isolationism has been a theme throughout
American history, on both sides of the political spectrum. Even God Bless
America seems to promote this view, its opening line referencing the storm
clouds gathering “</span><span style="background: white;">far across the sea.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white;">After over a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan
(one of which was launched/fought under ostensibly false pretenses) and the
longest recession since the Depression, it’s understandable that many would
seek strength through a retreat from global affairs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA4HY_vwlGW5Sva1xMTCnFYyCnlV8Q7VDCVMKuQ1AhMiYBPFyDYE0clwGzeEHgtNznJjzUNpticpkYmpyYHcKi3JKv167HAGmug7-0xGg_qFk2KJp9TeHdoKfMrS_g2mWXPM4k070zX4oU/s1600/foreign+aid+spend.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA4HY_vwlGW5Sva1xMTCnFYyCnlV8Q7VDCVMKuQ1AhMiYBPFyDYE0clwGzeEHgtNznJjzUNpticpkYmpyYHcKi3JKv167HAGmug7-0xGg_qFk2KJp9TeHdoKfMrS_g2mWXPM4k070zX4oU/s1600/foreign+aid+spend.JPG" height="183" width="320" /></a><span style="background: white;">And yet, the views of the majority of Americans are
informed by a gross misunderstanding of what foreign aid is and how much of our
budget it makes up. As shown in the <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-unraveler/united-states-foreign-aid-2015-budget">chart</a>
at left from the Center for Global Development, the percentage of the federal
budget going to foreign aid has declined significantly over the past half
century. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">Despite this clear trend, Americans consistently
believe that the U.S. spends over one quarter of its entire budget on foreign
aid (see <a href="http://kff.org/global-health-policy/poll-finding/2013-survey-of-americans-on-the-u-s-role-in-global-health/">chart</a>
from a recent survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation). Indeed, only </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">four percent correctly
stated that foreign aid makes up one percent or less of the federal budget.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhinly4LSdMtHHZw_IOrTE7CFHN0QdG_3XSz7ssF-qnON7ay7rz_i3RTBtV1-QPZJKDb0VNbmM3RSJmFZfV9B4Il95toYEu7y2_4s59VQg2YxASDEH3Gj0iASe-vB2xydMqksfSBmfzoZsV/s1600/kaiser+foreign+aid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhinly4LSdMtHHZw_IOrTE7CFHN0QdG_3XSz7ssF-qnON7ay7rz_i3RTBtV1-QPZJKDb0VNbmM3RSJmFZfV9B4Il95toYEu7y2_4s59VQg2YxASDEH3Gj0iASe-vB2xydMqksfSBmfzoZsV/s1600/kaiser+foreign+aid.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF5CPHxNvEKejVK3kaRbgzAoV_I-wY2YvBTimsmwFedDfinUgWaqPB9wGTYdB7HcBPEOyAK277D6jpf_1iI7-g1S8qZOFs2zVXaGOOc8Gk5FHYM2cTWq4w_RAtCr3KjZxuNEjslz4HXD_P/s1600/kaiser+foreign+aid+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF5CPHxNvEKejVK3kaRbgzAoV_I-wY2YvBTimsmwFedDfinUgWaqPB9wGTYdB7HcBPEOyAK277D6jpf_1iI7-g1S8qZOFs2zVXaGOOc8Gk5FHYM2cTWq4w_RAtCr3KjZxuNEjslz4HXD_P/s1600/kaiser+foreign+aid+2.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a><span style="background-color: white;">Lest one think that the
facts are irrelevant to the public’s consideration of foreign aid, consider
that Kaiser found a dramatic shift in sentiment when Americans are told about
the actual facts.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Armed with the facts,
citizens change their views—a lesson policymakers could learn to emulate—and
indeed, they are right to do so, not only because America has a duty to play a
leadership role in combating global poverty, but because many elements of
foreign aid have proven to be some of the most effective uses of government
funds. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">In its 2014 annual <a href="http://annualletter.gatesfoundation.org/#section=myth-two">letter</a>,
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation calculated that since 1980 alone, foreign
aid has helped to save 100 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">million </i>children
at an average cost of about $5,000 per life: a bargain so good the only
question is why we don’t do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">more</i>. </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As America
continues to look back at our own Civil War at its 150<sup>th</sup>
anniversary, I’m reminded of what John Stuart Mill <a href="https://archive.org/details/contestinamerica00mill">wrote</a> in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Contest in America </i>in 1862:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the
decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that
nothing is</span> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">worth</span></i> <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">a war, is much worse…A man
who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more
about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has
no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men
than himself.</span> <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">As long as justice and injustice have not terminated <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">their</i></span> <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">ever-renewing fight for
ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need
is, to do battle for the one against the other.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
While the
battles of Baghdad and Kabul come to a close, the war on preventable disease
and extreme poverty wage on. Are we willing to fight to end those scourges, if
not with blood, than with treasure? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
We ought to
be, and not because there isn’t suffering in our own backyards that demands our
concern and attention—there is—but rather because our lives and liberty are
degraded by casting aside our gaze and pretending like our wealth is ours to
hoard, rather than a tool to be used to bring justice, peace, and a modicum of
dignity to all people, everywhere.</div>
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<br /></div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-73029543066145180432014-05-07T08:00:00.001-04:002014-05-07T08:00:06.569-04:00Sterling and the Shrinking Scope of the Purely “Private” Sphere<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“These days,
the only way you can have a private conversation is to talk to yourself.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
-- “<a href="http://www.boardofwisdom.com/togo/?viewid=1009&search=Susan_Gale"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Susan_Gale</span></a>”
(Board of Wisdom)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Last month,
BSB <a href="http://baystatebrahmin.blogspot.com/2014/04/boycotts-bravery-or-bullying-from.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">covered</span></a>
the saga of Mozilla CEO Brandon Eich, who resigned after amid a torrent of
criticism for his $1000 donation in support of California’s Proposition 8, a
ballot measure that sought to ban same-sex marriage. At the time, there was
considerable discussion about whether public pressure should be directed at an
individual like Eich purely on account of his political beliefs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
More
recently, a similar firestorm erupted in the National Basketball Association,
as Donald Sterling, the octogenarian owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, was
recorded making deeply racist comments. The recording was captured by one of
Sterling’s associates, V. Stiviano, who later <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-sterling-recording-was-leaked-by-third-party-attorney-says/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">gave</span></a>
it to a third party for “safe keeping” only to have the contents leaked to TMZ.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Recent
reports indicate that the recording was made with consent from both Sterling
and Stiviano (California is a “all-party” (or “two party”) consent state,
whereas New York is a “one-party” state requiring only one individual to have
consented to a recording). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
While some
have hailed Stiviano as a “<a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/04/v-stiviano-donald-sterling-girlfriend-maria-perez.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">hero</span></a>”,
others have questioned whether the real story—aside from the vile commentary
unleashed by Sterling—is the nature of private communication in modern life. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
NBA great
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar even went so far as to <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2049835-kareem-abdul-jabbar-says-person-who-recorded-donald-sterling-should-be-in-jail"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">say</span></a>,
“Shouldn’t we be equally angered by the fact that his private, intimate
conversation was taped and then leaked to the media? Didn’t we just call
to task the NSA for intruding into American citizen’s privacy in such
an un-American way?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
ESPN
columnist Jason Whitlock <a href="http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10857268/removing-donald-sterling-la-clippers-owner-fix-our-culture"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">added</span></a>:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
If TMZ plans to make “pillow talk”
public and the standard is set that “pillow talk” is actionable, it won't be
long before a parade of athletes joins Sterling on Ignorance Island.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
A right to privacy is at the very
foundation of American freedoms. It's a core value. It's a mistake to undermine
a core value because we don't like the way a billionaire exercises it. What
happens when a disgruntled lover gives TMZ a tape of a millionaire athlete
expressing a homophobic or anti-Semitic or anti-white perspective?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Lastly, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Globe</i> columnist Jeff Jacoby <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/04/29/sterling-racism-ugly-but-loss-privacy-will-even-worse/b91202r8anGXFqeS3iQSmI/story.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">issued</span></a>
a cautionary warning, “[I]t isn’t only other people’s dirty laundry that the
whole world can get a good look at. It is yours and mine, too. Once our privacy
is gone, don’t count on getting it back.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So what are
we to make of this? At the outset, we need to define whether the decline in
privacy is a problem in the first place. Presumably, we believe that a
shrinking private sphere will lead to self-censorship and the decline in
discourse that may at the time seem abhorrent but later becomes not only
accepted, but embraced (countless ideas in history follow this trajectory, from
Copernican heliocentrism to marriage equality).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
At the same
time, each of us as “public citizens” must be <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/opinion/in-cyberspace-forever.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">prepared</span></a>
to shoulder the consequences of our views. But which views? Perhaps those that
we affirmatively choose to share with others. For instance, Brandon Eich contributed
to a public campaign and was held to account in the marketplace. Donald
Sterling did not make such an affirmative choice, though as most others have
noted, given Sterling’s history of behavior, he garners little sympathy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Beyond
whether a communication was intended to be public or private, are there
important lines to be drawn between politicians and public figures—who we <a href="http://baystatebrahmin.blogspot.com/2014/03/what-we-really-mean-when-we-seek.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">expect</span></a>
to uphold a certain type of consistency across audiences—and private “everyday”
Americans? The law already differentiates between these classes of persons in
libel law, where public figures must prove “actual malice” to recover. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">See Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc</i>., 418
U.S. 323 (1974). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of course,
this only begs the question of who constitutes a public figure. It’s easy to
say that a billionaire NBA owner is a public figure—but what of the small
business owner on the corner or the superintendent of a small regional school
district? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
None of
these questions are easy to answer, but the Sterling story should generate
conversation about the nature of privacy in the modern age—an issue that we’ve done
little to address, other than using technology to provide a quick fix (here’s
looking at you, <a href="http://www.snapchat.com/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Snapchat</span></a>).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Furthermore,
it acts as a reminder that each of us is aware that people say things they
don’t mean (we’ve all done it) and that attaching permanent pariah status on
another individual for thoughts shared with intimates behind closed doors is
often unfair and short-sighted. A society built on open dialogue and second
(and third) chances cannot function if there is no safe space to discuss
controversial subjects in a constructive manner (again, Sterling’s do not
remotely fit this description, but other controversial comments do).</div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now I better
log off and put pen to physical paper. After all, privacy isn’t dead yet.</div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-25035817207745327702014-05-02T08:00:00.000-04:002014-05-02T08:00:02.352-04:00More and Less: Justice and the Plight of the Poor<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">With the help of
well-designed experiments, you can see glimmers of moral thought, moral
judgment and moral feeling even in the first year of life. Some sense of good
and evil seems to be bred in the bone</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">-- Paul Bloom, “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/magazine/09babies-t.html?pagewanted=all">The
Moral Life of Babies</a>,” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times
</i>(9 May 2010)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">This week, Annie Lowrey of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times </i>wrote a terrific,
front-page <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/business/economy/changed-life-of-the-poor-squeak-by-and-buy-a-lot.html">story</a>
on how the poor in America have much greater access to material goods than in
generations past, yet feel as if they are falling farther and farther beyond
the middle class. As </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">James Ziliak, director of the University of Kentucky’s Center for
Poverty Research, stated, “Without a doubt, the poor are far better off than
they were at the dawn of the War on Poverty. But they have also drifted further
away.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">If people are better off,
why does it matter if they’ve “drifted away” from the middle and upper classes
on a relative scale? If the rising tide lifts all ships, what difference does
it make if some seas rise faster and taller than others?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">As it turns out, it makes every
difference in the world—and not just in America, but also across most societies
in every corner of the globe. Why? Because rising inequality, no matter how
improved the objective standard of living is for individuals across the board,
offends something deep within us—an <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">innate
sense of fairness, justice, and opportunity</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">As Paul Bloom wrote in 2010, “</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">You won’t find a society
where people don’t have some notion of fairness, don’t put some value on
loyalty and kindness, don’t distinguish between acts of cruelty and innocent
mistakes, don’t categorize people as nasty or nice.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAkgbuLag03eL9p3AVTphQ8_2OYZiaJPx-Xqt4hyfm0ldr7y1n1lrgEF2OM1TqLTwgDDZgpJ0WnML4Gj5zHigbTc72N9SUyZFRvqfjyBwsbv0hde4MU4Tk_QSUj1kSHx3RvubE7_fl9lt7/s1600/conspicuous+consumption.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAkgbuLag03eL9p3AVTphQ8_2OYZiaJPx-Xqt4hyfm0ldr7y1n1lrgEF2OM1TqLTwgDDZgpJ0WnML4Gj5zHigbTc72N9SUyZFRvqfjyBwsbv0hde4MU4Tk_QSUj1kSHx3RvubE7_fl9lt7/s1600/conspicuous+consumption.jpg" height="320" width="301" /></a><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">As a result, it should come
as no surprise that people are frustrated—even enraged—by </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">how an emphasis on <a href="http://hlrecord.org/?p=12648">conspicuous consumption</a> has replaced a
more fulfilling vision of the American Dream with a vacuous conception of
liberty and success.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">For far too long, American
policymakers have focused on “expanding the pie”, as if GDP growth was gospel
sent down from on high—the embodiment of our collective pursuit of happiness. As
we’ve explored in this <a href="http://baystatebrahmin.blogspot.com/2014/04/what-it-means-to-be-1-happiness-and.html">space</a>,
however, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">achieving happiness is a much
more complicated task than economic growth</b>. It requires a deep
understanding of human nature; a critical examination of the true material <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">needs </i>(as opposed to wants) of
individuals, and a commitment to investing in the foundational elements of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">true </i>prosperity—the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/04/political-messaging">infrastructure
of opportunity</a></b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">That infrastructure is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">physical</b>—inter-city high-speed rail, urban mass transit, affordable
housing, reliable water/gas delivery, clean power—and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">human</b>—education from K-graduate school, social institutions,
mobility (where <a href="http://baystatebrahmin.blogspot.com/2014/02/part-time-workers-and-affordable-care.html">health
care</a> attaches to you as a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">human </i>rather
than an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">employee</i>), and substantive
and procedural justice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Erecting this infrastructure is a mission
statement that acknowledges that government’s primary role is to lay the
groundwork (including a robust social safety net) for people to life the lives they’ve
imagined, but that the State must also take aggressive steps, as necessary, to
allay levels of inequality that threaten to create a “gilded class” (if Thomas
Piketty is right that, over time, the </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">rate of return on capital is greater than the growth
rate of the economy, then individuals who start with capital are very likely to
accumulate more)</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> and undermine
the citizenry’s belief in the very idea of Republican government.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">While the incredible reduction in <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/04/17/remarkable-declines-in-global-poverty-but-major-challenges-remain">extreme
poverty</a> worldwide has brought <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">billions
</i>of people the bare necessities of life, there remain 1.2 </span>billion
people living on less than $1.25 per day. These individuals remain in desperate
need of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">economic growth <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and </i>actions to address inequality</b>. As
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Economist </i><a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21578643-world-has-astonishing-chance-take-billion-people-out-extreme-poverty-2030-not">noted</a>
last year, “<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Growth alone does not
guarantee less poverty. Income distribution matters, too.” Indeed, while two
thirds of the fall in extreme poverty was the result of economic growth; one-third
came from greater equality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">As the cartoon above implies, the world <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">has enough</i>—enough to feed the hungry and
shelter the homeless, enough to treat the sick and heal the injured. However,
that bounty means little unless extreme poverty is eradicated in the developing
world (an achievable goal by 2030) and unless the developed world creates an
infrastructure of opportunity commensurate with our innate belief that all
people deserve an equal chance to succeed.</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-6541150871486112392014-05-01T08:00:00.001-04:002014-05-01T08:00:05.773-04:00The Fixed Point of our Spiritual Constellation: The Fault in Our Stars<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Identity is an assemblage of constellations</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">--<a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/22/anna-deavere-smith-explores-20-views-of-life-death-in-let-me-down-easy.html">Anna
Deavere Smith</a>, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Last
weekend, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times </i>published “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/27/nyregion/new-york-city-in-haiku.html">New
York City in Haiku</a>”, a series of short poems from people of all ages that
described certain aspects of living in America’s greatest metropolis. One
submission from a 14-year-old Manhattanite reads:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;">Face seen across tracks,</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 28.0pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">We stare, and a train passes,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Face gone forever.</span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
That
feeling—of <a href="http://hlrecord.org/?p=10388">life lines</a> converging for
a fleeting moment only to separate once more, perhaps indefinitely—is common to
all humanity, not only on the subway platforms of New York, but in towns big
and small across the country and around the world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Even these
ephemeral connections are like manna to our souls. As recently <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/26/opinion/sunday/hello-stranger.html?ref=opinion">detailed</a>
by <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">behavioral
scientists<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Nicholas Epley and
Juliana Schroeder, these interactions with “strangers” (even mere eye contact!)
generally produce a more positive experience than remaining in solitude. Social
beings, we are.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">But as beautiful as these
short-lived convergences are, they cannot replace the sentiment felt when,
against seemingly all odds, life lines not only converge, but dance in parallel
motion, flirting, bumping up against one another, and eventually fusing
together in a double helix bond.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
protagonists of John Green’s latest book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Fault-Stars-John-Green/dp/0525478817">The Fault
in Our Stars</a> </i>(2012) (a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">NYT </i>bestseller
that is sure to sell a few more copies when it is released as a major motion
picture on June 6—see trailer below), are lucky enough to form such a
bond—lucky being an odd word to use in reference to teenagers suffering from
the scourge of cancer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Lucky they
are, though, in that their shared affliction—tragic as it is—led them to one
another. “Were she better or you sicker, then the stars would not be so
terribly crossed, but it is the nature of stars to cross…there is no shortage
of fault to be found amid our stars.”</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/9ItBvH5J6ss?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Those
“stars” or “constellations” in our lives take many forms—friends, siblings,
parents, classmates, neighbors, competitors, strangers. Amidst the many
uncertainties of life, the protagonists in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fault
</i>find that the “stars” inexorably orbit (and are pulled ever so slightly
towards) humanity’s “black hole”, which is to say, closer to death and
oblivion. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Nevertheless,
one particular star seems fixed—to be trusted even when all the other measures
of direction fail. As Augustus Waters says to Hazel Grace Lancaster:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
I’m in love with you, and I know that
love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that
we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been
returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have,
and I am in love with you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
One of the magical
aspects of parallel lines is that even though we know that they go on forever,
never to converge, perspective plays tricks with our minds, convincing us that
far on the horizon, the lines, having ever so deliberately sidled up beside one
another, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">touch</i>. </div>
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<br /></div>
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And maybe
that’s the greatest lesson of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stars</i>—that
for all those passing glances on the subway platform, life lines going far and
wide, there is an Ultimate convergence that our shared mortality forces us to confront.
“<span style="background: white;">Earth to earth, ashes to ashes,</span> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">dust to dust</span><span style="background: white;">,” the infinity of love shines brightly, beckoning us home.</span></div>
<br />Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-91569925344063021992014-04-30T08:00:00.000-04:002014-04-30T08:00:10.532-04:00Crime, Clemency, and Constitutional Corrective Action<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“[T]he world
may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America the law is
king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the
law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
--Thomas Paine, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Common
Sense</i>, 1776</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Last week,
many criminal justice advocates rejoiced at the Department of Justice’s
announcement of a broad clemency initiative <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/us/politics/clemency.html">targeting</a>
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">“nonviolent felons who
have served at least 10 years in prison and who would have received
significantly lower prison terms if convicted under today’s more lenient
sentencing laws.”</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Many of the
potential beneficiaries of the program were convicted of drug crimes between
1980-2010, during which time there only significantly more draconian penalties
across the board and gross disparities in sentences based on certain types of
drugs (powder v. crack cocaine being the most infamous). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times </i>notes, while Congress reduced (but
did not eliminate) the disparity by passing the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA) in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/us/politics/29crack.html">2010</a>, it
has <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>chosen to apply the new sentences
retroactively (though the Supreme Court did rule, 5-4, that the lower minimums
apply to people who committed crimes prior to the law being enacted, but who
were sentenced after the bill became a law—see: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Dorsey v</span><span style="background: white;">.</span> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">United
States</span></i><span style="background: white;">, 567 U.S. ___ (2012)).</span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The decision
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>to apply the Fair Sentencing Act
retroactively was not made without significant consideration by the Legislative
branch. Indeed, in the wake of the FSA’s passage, Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL)
and Mike Lee (R-UT) proposed broader retroactively in the “<a href="http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/1410/text">Smarter
Sentencing Act</a>”, which would allow individuals to petition the courts for
sentence reductions commensurate with the FSA. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFPrC02bnY7JUKwZ5Bt4LwjLQ9wpk3-ZdVWbdLwPtxR-ggD4_cxejELReJZ___kj2fN9e-ERNiRaCdC1UiDlOjYdM9n1sKZLvTYJxMPJYU0vAxc8-qDpJvBMGU61SQeoE9uY-iNDY3a6dp/s1600/capitol+building.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFPrC02bnY7JUKwZ5Bt4LwjLQ9wpk3-ZdVWbdLwPtxR-ggD4_cxejELReJZ___kj2fN9e-ERNiRaCdC1UiDlOjYdM9n1sKZLvTYJxMPJYU0vAxc8-qDpJvBMGU61SQeoE9uY-iNDY3a6dp/s1600/capitol+building.jpg" height="201" width="320" /></a></div>
While the
bill has yet to receive a vote, the <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Act by a bipartisan
vote of 13-5</span> in January 2014. It is a good bill—a critical second
act to the FSA—and Congress should pass it without delay.<br />
<br />
But where
does that leave the President’s new clemency system?<b> Is it an appropriate tool to use to modify potentially thousands of
sentences in a way that Congress specifically rejected when it passed the FSA
only 4 years ago?</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Linda
Greenhouse, former SCOTUS scribe for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times
</i>and current Journalist in Residence and Lecturer at Yale, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/06/opinion/greenhouse-crack-cocaine-limbo.html">wrote</a>
in January, “<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Keeping a
known and finite group of people locked in a system acknowledged to be
irrational is irrationality itself.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4gm0gDLRZEz0EnBQSx5a8V8C8NkoQ_RZ68_fP_AihaJnOPeKj5ONWSfuRVsOfk-2NRbngX9wE1Cx9mm8khyphenhyphenJJcZ77GDi7QE6PdB8ZLd_-VLw_o9j1nhESZ0hsxhcyRiDZKxVrZ_g90t77/s1600/WhiteHouseSouthFacade.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4gm0gDLRZEz0EnBQSx5a8V8C8NkoQ_RZ68_fP_AihaJnOPeKj5ONWSfuRVsOfk-2NRbngX9wE1Cx9mm8khyphenhyphenJJcZ77GDi7QE6PdB8ZLd_-VLw_o9j1nhESZ0hsxhcyRiDZKxVrZ_g90t77/s1600/WhiteHouseSouthFacade.JPG" height="237" width="320" /></a><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">I completely agree and
that’s a darn good argument to make to urge House and Senate members to pass
the Smarter Sentencing Act. It is, however, not such a good argument for the
unilateral imposition of what one unitary Executive deems “rational” (indeed,
logical as you may be, dear reader, it stands to reason that the officeholder
at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is quite likely to disagree with your sense of
rationality over time).</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Indeed, the
use of the unilateral clemency power is a far cry from supporting legislative
changes to criminal laws, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/us/politics/holder-endorses-proposal-to-reduce-drug-sentences.html">sentencing
guidelines</a>, or policies related to the use of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/12/us/justice-dept-seeks-to-curtail-stiff-drug-sentences.html?pagewanted=all">prosecutorial
discretion</a>. In all three of those instances, the Executive branch is either
using authority specifically granted to it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and
it alone </i>under the Constitution, or is seeking to persuade another branch
to support a specific policy recommendation. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">clemency power, while constitutionally
authorized, has not traditionally been applied to situations in which Congress
or the Courts could act—through their basic structure—to cure the underlying
injustice</b>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As Chief
Justice William Rehnquist declared in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Herrera
v. Collins</i>, 506 U.S. 390 (1993), “Clemency is deeply rooted in our
Anglo-American tradition of law, and is the historic remedy for preventing
miscarriages of justice <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">where judicial
process has been exhausted</b>” (emphasis added).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Like <a href="http://hlrecord.org/?p=10804">presidential pardons</a>, which can and
often are abused for political gain, a broad grant of clemency by the
President, particularly where the underlying effort conflicts with recent Congressional
action (see Justice Robert Jackson’s famous concurrence in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Youngstown Sheet</span> <span style="background: white;">&</span> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Tube Co</span><span style="background: white;">.</span> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">v</span><span style="background: white;">.</span> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Sawyer</span></i><span style="background: white;">, 343 U.S. 579 (1952)), is a tool that lends itself to overreach,
particularly in lame duck terms. </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Thus, sympathetic as I am to the urgent
injustice the President is seeking to address, I cannot support a blanket use
of the clemency power to address such an injustice (just as I cannot accept
broad based commutations of death row inmates by <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2003/1/13/illinois_governor_commutes_death_sentences_of">governors</a>
despite my personal view that the death penalty is heinous and unconstitutional
in all cases). <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Instead, we
must actively persuade our fellow citizens and our elected representatives to
pass laws to end the era of irrational drug penalties and, if they choose not
to do so, we must punish them at the ballot box. That’s the way democracy
functions—not by fiat or force, but by politics and persuasion.</div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-21416006100506576282014-04-29T08:00:00.001-04:002014-04-29T08:00:08.845-04:00SCOTUSWatch: The iPhone Meets the Fourth Amendment<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“</b><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">The Agema Thermovision 210 might disclose, for example, at what hour
each night the lady of the house takes her daily sauna and bath—a detail that
many would consider ‘intimate.’”</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">-- Justice Antonin
Scalia, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kyllo v</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white;">.</span> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">United States</span></i><span style="background: white;">, 533 U.S. 27 (2001)</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">This morning, the Supreme
Court will hear argument in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">United States
v. Wurie </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Riley v. California</i>,
two cases concerning the right of police officers to search cell phones
incident to an arrest without a warrant. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">These are just the latest in
a long line of cases in which the Court has had to try to graft the text of the
Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures onto
modern technology. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Since 2001, the Court has
ruled that placing a GPS device on an individual’s car constitutes a search (</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">United States v. Jones</span></i><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">, 132 S. Ct. 945 (2012)</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">), the warrantless use of a thermal device to scan the inside of a home
for evidence of heat lamps that could be used to grow marijuana violates the
Fourth Amendment (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kyllo</i>), and, my
personal favorite, </span>that a California law limiting the sale of violent
video games to minors violated the First Amendment (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Brown v. Entm’t Merchs. Ass’n</span></i><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">, 131 S. Ct. 2729 (2011)</span>).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brown </i>is noteworthy not just for the Court’s
strong affirmation of the First Amendment, but also for revealing the limits of
the Justices’ understanding of modern technology. During <a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/08-1448.pdf">oral
argument</a> Justice Elena Kagan stated, “A reasonable jury could find that
Mortal Kombat -- which is, you know, an iconic game, which I'm sure half of the
clerks who work for us spent considerable amounts of time in their adolescence
playing,” at which point Justice Scalia interjected, to the laughter of the
courtroom, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“I don't know what she's
talking about.”</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Suffice to say, every Supreme Court justice has
a cell phone (whether they have smart phones is another story—the Justices are
famous for their paper-based inter-chambers communication), and therefore the
issues at stake in the Court today should be at least somewhat familiar.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">What are those issues
precisely? <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">From my perspective, there
are two major questions posed by these cases: (1) What types of content on a
phone carry a reasonable expectation of privacy; and (2) How (if at all) does
the advent of “cloud” based storage change the calculus for police who seek to
preserve evidence incident to an arrest?</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">First, as NYCLU Associate
Legal Director Chris Dunn <a href="http://www.nyclu.org/oped/column-technology-and-constitution-supreme-court-decide-if-police-can-freely-search-cell-phones">wrote</a>
in a column in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Law Journal </i>in
February, our phones include a vast amount of information, from emails,
photographs, and social media postings to browsing histories, financial data,
and GPS-based location tracking.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #222222;"> </span></i><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Some of these “possessions”—like financial records and health
information—would seem to fall under the most stringent privacy
protection, while others, particularly social media postings (which almost by
definition are meant for public display/dissemination), seem to lack the
type of reasonable expectation of privacy usually linked with the Fourth
Amendment</span></b><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Indeed, given that law enforcement agencies
already <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-forms-new-social-media-unit-facebook-twitter-mayhem-article-1.945242">patrol</a>
Facebook/Twitter/etc for leads—particularly regarding youth gangs—it would seem
odd to</span></span> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">not</span> </i><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">permit cops to examine
public social media postings after an arrest, even without a warrant.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">On the other hand, why <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>get a warrant in these situations? For
one, a legitimate fear that has long been cited for the need to quickly perform
a search incident to an arrest is the concern that evidence could be tampered
with, spoiled, or otherwise rendered useless during the booking process. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Today, digital “evidence” is uniquely
capable of being destroyed from anywhere at anytime by anyone</b>, since a
friend could theoretically log in to someone's account and delete potentially
incriminating material. That concern creates at least</span> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">some</span> </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">urgency to a review.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">While the First Circuit insisted in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wurie </i>that <span style="background: white;">officers
could remove the phone battery, place the phone in a available bag that blocks incoming
signals, or copy the phone’s contents without examining them before obtaining a
warrant, the fact remains that the evidence accessible via the phone often
isn’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">on </i>the physical phone. Even the
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times </i>editorial board fell
into this trap, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/opinion/smartphones-and-the-4th-amendment.html?ref=opinion">insisting</a>
that “</span></span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">any
evidence on the phone can be preserved by using special devices to prevent
remote deletion of the data.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">”
That’s not true now and is far from a guarantee in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Finding a way to preserve potential evidence stored in the cloud within
the framework of the warrant system is a challenge, but not an impossible one</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">. Warrant procedures would need to be
streamlined—such that if probable cause exists that evidence of a crime is
accessible via the phone, a warrant could be issued in something close to real
time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Establishing such a system is important
because the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times </i>is right on the
merits—<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">cell phones today are not the
5-pound blocks of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wall Street </i>fame,
but are instead repositories of our most intimate associations, private
thoughts, and day-to-day movements</b>. For originalists, this means viewing
phones as diaries, bank ledgers, and general store receipts rolled into
one—precisely the type of “papers and effects” that the Fourth Amendment was
designed to protect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-23783739332843325892014-04-28T08:00:00.000-04:002014-04-28T08:00:09.980-04:00This Land is Whose Land? From NYCHA Housing to Nevada’s Ranches<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Was a high wall there that tried to stop me</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">A sign was painted said: Private Property,</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">But on the back side it didn't say nothing —</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">This land was made for you and me.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">-- <a href="http://www.npr.org/2000/07/03/1076186/this-land-is-your-land">Woody
Guthrie</a>, “This Land is Your Land,” 1940<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the
summer of 2000, our family rent-a-car emerged from the Grand Tetons and
traveled down National Highway 26 into the town of Jackson, Wyoming. As we sped
along (the urgent need for pancakes and flat, clear terrain propelling us
forward at speeds that would be reckless at best on the I-95 corridor), I
stared out the window and watched the cows chewing their weight in grass on
federal property (about half of Wyoming is owned by the U.S. Government—see map,
below). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="text-align: center;">Curious
about the agreements that allowed for such private use of public property, I
asked our waiter at the local diner who owned the cows and how much he/she paid
to have them grave on “federal property.” The waiter, already put off perhaps
by a New Englander wearing his ever-present Sox jacket, set his pen and paper
on the table, looked at me, and declared simply, </span><b style="text-align: center;">“That’s <i>our </i>land.”</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I was firmly
committed to putting pancakes over politics, so I demurred further argument, certain
that whoever the “our” was didn’t include me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuWyLo4xX7GcmgKtN2ONRnZ2dBcmMFMarbJ4UqxSne6Iz-aI19OxLbvQPhdWm656eOzOkC3j1ZAU5DuKCVl6HrDAz1eOH_J9tpPqevCktgw2PDHDS1v4RaNGCZUCQ5HlHn_bLyacQOXMMB/s1600/federal+land+ownership.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuWyLo4xX7GcmgKtN2ONRnZ2dBcmMFMarbJ4UqxSne6Iz-aI19OxLbvQPhdWm656eOzOkC3j1ZAU5DuKCVl6HrDAz1eOH_J9tpPqevCktgw2PDHDS1v4RaNGCZUCQ5HlHn_bLyacQOXMMB/s1600/federal+land+ownership.png" height="492" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
This month,
a dispute over federal grazing fees charged to Western ranchers once again <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/us/politics/rancher-proudly-breaks-the-law-becoming-a-hero-in-the-west.html">erupted</a>,
with armed civilians taking up positions against Bureau of Land Management <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">rangers who, pursuant to a
court order, attempted to confiscate 500 cattle owned by Cliven Bundy, who has
been illegally grazing his herd on public land since 1993. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid (D-NV) responded by calling the armed vigilantes “domestic terrorists”,
while Nevada’s junior Senator, Dean Heller (R), called Bundy’s supporters
“patriots.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Not only is there no
agreement on what taking up arms against the federal enforcement of a court
order should be called, there isn’t even consensus on the facts underlying the
case. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Washington Post </i>columnist Marc
Theissen <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/sen-harry-reids-baseless-domestic-terror-accusations/2014/04/21/9ee485fa-c952-11e3-93eb-6c0037dde2ad_story.html">decried</a>
Reid’s “domestic terrorist” comment, stating that “defending <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>your</u></i></b>
property against a paramilitary force of armed federal agents is not the
equivalent of blowing up a federal building or sending letter bombs” (emphasis
added).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Indeed, while Bundy’s </span>abhorrent
comments on race and his unwillingness to pay below-market grazing fees to the
Federal Government have given him 15 minutes in the national spotlight, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">what his case and the story of the diner in
Jackson are really about is the very nature of property rights—not just in the
American West, but across the country.</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Indeed, I’ve spent the last week pondering
Theissen’s remark, trying to come up with an East Coast equivalent to
understand the “ownership” Bundy and people like him feel over land whose title
is in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">our </i>collective name. As it
turns out, we have a pretty good analog right here in New York City in how we
try to grapple with the difficult concept of “home” as it relates to scarce and
precious public housing resources. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgxnMVpv9FgLQKYJWvVlbtpr7KbsJRT4WrLpcDp9a5-OQeqWYXYVQn4GVHHBhulP449QaWauq-ewoL_me7KUc64xGejntZV6_ekcDeY-stKZdNK4UVErwyC_u4nMCJb5DJQ6jEedkP09Y5/s1600/nycha-housing-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgxnMVpv9FgLQKYJWvVlbtpr7KbsJRT4WrLpcDp9a5-OQeqWYXYVQn4GVHHBhulP449QaWauq-ewoL_me7KUc64xGejntZV6_ekcDeY-stKZdNK4UVErwyC_u4nMCJb5DJQ6jEedkP09Y5/s1600/nycha-housing-logo.png" height="320" width="251" /></a>This month,
NYCHA General Manager Cecil House <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycha/downloads/pdf/committee-testimony-rightsizing-20140409.pdf">testified</a>
before the New York City Council about the Housing Authority’s “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">rightsizing</b>” plan. As the wait list for
public housing continues to grow (in 2012, NYCHA <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/nyregion/housing-authority-also-has-an-undercrowding-problem.html">projected</a>
that nearly one in three units (55,000) were “underoccuiped”, while the wait
list swelled to 160,000 families<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">)</span>,
NYCHA has sought to optimize apartment usage by “transitioning families to
apartments appropriate for their needs.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As House
stated, “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Rightsizing does not only
improve the quality of life of current NYCHA residents but also provides
housing to more New Yorkers on our waiting list</b>.”<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
rightsizing issue has been extremely controversial, largely because its very
nature necessitates removing people from their homes and placing them in
smaller apartments (particularly older residents whose children have moved
out). NYCHA is, after all, a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">public</b>
resource and rightsizing is absolutely needed to ensure that new families can
take advantage of the opportunities it provides.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
However, if
our homes are indeed our castles, it is also understandable as to why ranchers
or public housing tenants would feel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ownership</i>,
the deed notwithstanding.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In
situations like these, where emotions run hot and mistrust lurks around every
corner, there are few good choices. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">However,
our system of government is rooted in the consistent application of the rule of
law, rather than the fallible whims of officials</b>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Indeed, just
as the BLM didn’t attack Bundy for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">who </i>he
was, but for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what </i>he did (violate the
law by refusing to pay a standard fee), so NYCHA’s rightsizing is not directed at
individual residents as punishment, but is instead enforced as part of a
contractual agreement entered into by tenants with the Housing Authority.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As long as
the system itself is fair and people have the opportunity to argue their case
before a neutral arbiter, that’s all we can ask in a Republic. Taking up arms
against that effort is an affront to a government of laws itself—a government
that is fallible, but far better than the alternative.</div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-11237197124521890572014-04-25T08:00:00.000-04:002014-04-28T11:14:56.563-04:00Net Neutrality: A Revolutionary Solution to a 21st Century Problem<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";">Whatever facilitates a general intercourse of sentiments, as
good roads…a free press, and particularly a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">circulation
of newspapers through the entire body of the people</i>…is favorable to liberty.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande";"><br /></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
--<a href="http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch2s26.html">James
Madison</a>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Public Opinion</i>, 19 Dec.
1791</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
This week,
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/technology/fcc-new-net-neutrality-rules.html?_r=0">announced</a>
a major shift in policy concerning “net neutrality”—the principle that has
heretofore established that all legal internet traffic must have equal access
to the networks of service providers. This shift will potentially allow larger
companies (particularly providers of bandwidth-busting streaming video, like
Netflix or ESPN) <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">to
pay for preferential access to the internet’s infrastructure—what the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times </i>deemed “the digital
equivalent of an uncongested car pool lane on a busy freeway.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">A host of consumer and civil
liberties groups—from Common Cause to the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU)—have spoken out against the proposed rule changes, with the ACLU <a href="https://www.aclu.org/free-speech/aclu-comment-fcc-net-neutrality-plans">predicting</a>,
“</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">barriers to
innovation will rise, the marketplace of ideas on the internet will be
constrained, and consumers will ultimately pay the price.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">On the other side of the argument are telecommunications companies that
for years have insisted that “tiered” bandwidth would benefit the majority of
consumers. As David Cohen, an executive at Comcast <a href="http://hlrecord.org/?p=12166"><span style="color: blue;">declared</span></a>
at an FCC hearing at Harvard Law School in 2008, “Bandwidth-intensive
activities not only degrade other less-intense uses, but also significantly
interfere with thousands of Internet companies’ businesses.”</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">While I personally believe
that net neutrality should remain the law of the land, I am not blind to the
pressures facing ISPs or the writing on the wall from the FCC. Therefore, I
want to focus today on the potential effect that a </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: ArialMT; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“bandwidth to
the highest bidder” system could potentially </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">have on a free press and whether an ancient
Constitutional clause long forgotten—the Post Roads Clause—can be seized on by
Congress to ensure a free and equal exchange of ideas online.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">I propose that Congress </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: ArialMT; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">enact
legislation recognizing fiber-optic/broadband cable as the post roads of the 21<sup>st</sup>
century, and (assuming the FCC’s plans go through) require all ISPs that choose
to implement differentiated services to permit news organizations to have free
and uninhibited access to the fastest possible connection to end users. </span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: ArialMT; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This designation
would reduce the potentially devastating effects of “bandwidth to the highest
bidder” and would comport with the history of Congressional awareness of the
importance of a free and open press.</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii6yBm3KZtqRgz4NsyKEA6ymtd14AnrZ1p9jMYflSmKU5-EHaNTFEUEaPKoECp8qhyphenhyphenKGXMhSX2UiLoKgtARz-33kmnXa7OYbzrvbEPM1hURT1hpvaD6IFIjJsPHTycn3l4au85B7vk2d1s/s1600/Boston_Post_Road_map.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii6yBm3KZtqRgz4NsyKEA6ymtd14AnrZ1p9jMYflSmKU5-EHaNTFEUEaPKoECp8qhyphenhyphenKGXMhSX2UiLoKgtARz-33kmnXa7OYbzrvbEPM1hURT1hpvaD6IFIjJsPHTycn3l4au85B7vk2d1s/s1600/Boston_Post_Road_map.png" height="278" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u>The Old Boston Post Road-- From Wall Street to the Hub</u></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
In 1791, Massachusetts Congressman Elbridge Gerry declared, <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Wherever information is freely circulated there slavery cannot exist; or
if it does, it will vanish, as soon as information has been generally
diffused.” </span>Shortly thereafter, the first Postal Act passed and ever
since, the Post Roads power of Congress (Art. I, <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">§</span>8, Cl. 7) has been used to support
the work of newspapers. Newspapers were permitted to use the mails at deeply
discounted rates throughout the 18<sup>th</sup> and 19<sup>th</sup> centuries
and were eventually joined in that privileged position by magazines, books, and
other periodicals. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Over time, <b>the
Post Office has continued to be at the forefront of using transportation and
communications technologies</b> to improve both the reach of the press and the
speed at which its product could be transmitted across the continent.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 1823,
<b>waterways</b> were declared post roads. In 1838, all <b>railroads</b> in the United States
were declared post roads. And <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: ArialMT; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">in 1922 and 1923, the Post Office was awarded the Collier<i> </i>Trophy
for important contributions to the development of aeronautics for its
contributions to airliner safety.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
The Post Office not only asserted control over transportation
technology, but also over new forms of communication technology. As the Supreme
Court of the United States noted in<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Pensacola Telegraph Company v. Western Union Telegraph Company</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">,</span> a case upholding Congressional regulation of telegraph lines<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Post-offices
and post-roads are established to facilitate the transmission of intelligence</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">…<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The powers thus granted</b> are not
confined to the instrumentalities of commerce, or the postal service known or
in use when the Constitution was adopted, but they <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">keep pace with the progress of the country, and adapt themselves to the
new developments of time and circumstances</b>. They extend from the horse with
its rider to the stage-coach, from the sailing-vessel to the steamboat, from
the coach and the steamboat to the railroad, and from the railroad to the
telegraph, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">as these new agencies are
successively brought into use to meet the demands of increasing population and
wealth</b>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Pensacola Tel. Co. v.
W. Union Tel. Co.</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">, 96 U.S. 1, 9-10 (1878) (internal citations
omitted) (emphasis added). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Like the
canals, rails, and wires before it, the internet has become the great
facilitator of knowledge—tying the nation and the globe together and
transmitting ideas across oceans in ways the Founding generation never could
have imagined. And yet, as the Court said 136 years ago, the Constitution stands
ready to adapt to the “progress of the country.” In 2014, the time has come for
Post Roads to meet Cyber Space.</div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-52598673966920164282014-04-24T08:00:00.000-04:002014-04-24T08:00:05.365-04:00Stamps, Low Prices, and Banking in Modern America<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I cannot forbear intimating to you the
expediency… of facilitating the intercourse between the distant parts of our
Country by a due attention to the Post-Office and Post Roads.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
--<a href="http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-04-02-0361">President
George Washington</a>, 1<sup>st</sup> Annual Address to Congress, 8 Jan. 1790<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In February,
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-warren/coming-to-a-post-office-n_b_4709485.html">unveiled</a>
a proposal, based on a white paper <a href="http://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/document-library-files/2014/rarc-wp-14-007.pdf">issued</a>
by the Office of the Inspector General for the United States Postal Service, to
resuscitate the flailing Postal Service by partnering with banks and credit
unions to <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">offer basic
banking services -- bill paying, check cashing, small loans -- for the nearly
70 million Americans who are part of the “unbanked” economy, lacking access to
checking or savings accounts.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As Warren
noted, the costs imposed on the working poor by lacking access to bank accounts
is substantial. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR6ksG9LOUIpWthDe-_qGrZkl-wC03UBOXkK1A3q5b4GaTy3uqCWt0pW1-1yKgoCR7JX-gVdZvY2f3CdwZiV1r89ra-aWGlW2lfJrtSyGpnAXOTbMNr2B6T5oCoVrY-sEg30wZAJvS4dd5/s1600/USPS.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR6ksG9LOUIpWthDe-_qGrZkl-wC03UBOXkK1A3q5b4GaTy3uqCWt0pW1-1yKgoCR7JX-gVdZvY2f3CdwZiV1r89ra-aWGlW2lfJrtSyGpnAXOTbMNr2B6T5oCoVrY-sEg30wZAJvS4dd5/s1600/USPS.png" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Collectively, these households spent about $89 billion in
2012 on interest and fees for non-bank financial services like payday loans and
check cashing, which works out to an average of $2,412 per household. That
means the average underserved household spends roughly 10 percent of its annual
income on interest and fees -- about the same amount they spend on food.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Many elected
officials have taken significant steps to solve the problems facing the
unbanked. For instance, as Manhattan Borough President, my boss, Scott
Stringer, partnered with banks to promote low-cost checking accounts through
the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/bank-manhattan-program-new-yorkers-open-savings-checking-25-article-1.157412">Bank
On Manhattan</a> program, saving thousands of New Yorkers hundreds of dollars
in check-cashing fees every year.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
However,
there are few institutions in American life that have the scope and reach of
the United States Postal Service. Indeed, from the flagship Farley Post Office
on and 8<sup>th</sup> Avenue in Manhattan (10001) to the remote outpost in <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/US+Post+Office/@71.285044,-156.7818779,11z/data=!4m9!1m6!2m5!1sbarrow+alaska+post+office!3m3!1spost+office!2sBarrow,+AK!3s0x50c2d8011fe06ec5:0xb9d4811209c3d850!3m1!1s0x0:0x3f2e65ce9144e4ca">Barrow</a>,
Alaska (99723), USPS has been designed, from the founding of the Republic, to “<a href="https://about.usps.com/publications/pub100/pub100_036.htm">bind the
nation together</a>” as one.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdTsVo912dk_LwI0N5A6vvzw7oH_qVOlCq6GdqiooiKMLbk20RaZB7howyT1QNrv-D68tb6KqaVH9U-KAXQsounVNU3gh7rIBQhf4fuytnEz_QJYL2Koh-Pd59i5urZjD9CSNN3X8BXjtn/s1600/smiley.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdTsVo912dk_LwI0N5A6vvzw7oH_qVOlCq6GdqiooiKMLbk20RaZB7howyT1QNrv-D68tb6KqaVH9U-KAXQsounVNU3gh7rIBQhf4fuytnEz_QJYL2Koh-Pd59i5urZjD9CSNN3X8BXjtn/s1600/smiley.png" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Founding
Fathers wouldn’t have believed it, but in 21<sup>st</sup> century America,
there may be one entity that can compete with the reach of the USPS: Wal-Mart.
The world’s largest retailer, with over 10000 stores in 71 countries (over 4000
stores in the U.S.) and over $476 billion in sales in FY 2014, Wal-Mart’s
footprint is so large that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/crazy-facts-about-walmart-2012-11?op=1">over</a>
90 percent of Americans live within 15 miles of a store. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So perhaps
it comes as no surprise that as same-store sales stall (thanks in no small part
to the stagnation in wages growth for the vast majority of Americans), Wal-Mart
is dipping its toes into the financial services arena. Last week, the company <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/04/17/wal-mart-jumps-into-money-transfer-biz-loudly/TPa102YsN2TbisokTGkGiO/story.html">announced</a>
that it would launch a new, low-cost money transfer system today, Thursday,
April 24, which will allow customers to transfer up to $900 between stores at a
fraction of the cost of competitors Western Union and MoneyGram (whose stocks
plunged upon the news).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
While many justifiably
criticize Wal-Mart’s labor and environmental practices (though in my view in a
manner disproportionate to the scrutiny other similar firms face), there is
little doubt that Wal-Mart’s sheer size can have a potentially transformative
effect on the unbanked. Indeed, just as we now shop for groceries, set our
alarms, read our email, watch TV, and pay our bills with our phones, so the
banking of the future is likely to take place <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">outside </i>the traditional bank—be it online or at a store like
Wal-Mart (a similar, consumer-oriented trend has emerged in medicine with the
proliferation of “minute clinics” in pharmacies nationwide).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It will be
interesting to see how Wal-Mart’s new service fares. For now, government regulators
should take a wait-and-see approach to the initiative, ensuring that consumers
are properly informed of the services offered and the fees charged, while also
allowing the market to innovate in order to drive down costs.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And if it
doesn’t work out, there’s always that post office in Barrow.</div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-8426993380743948332014-04-23T08:00:00.001-04:002014-04-23T08:00:08.665-04:00An Awakening: School Holidays + Political Power<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“<span style="background: #FCFCFC; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Being in politics is like
being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and
dumb enough to think it’s important.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">-- Sen. Eugene
McCarthy, 1967<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Last week,
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times </i>and the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boston Globe </i>wrote about the hot-button
issue of religious equality in school holidays. In Massachusetts, the last
state in the Union to dismantle its State-sponsored church (in 1833!), the <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/north/2014/04/16/school-districts-rethink-good-friday-policy/vvvr6dsM5lZV9rdhliaQrN/story.html">controversy</a>
is over the decision of 17 school districts to open on Good Friday. In New York
City, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/nyregion/muslims-in-new-york-city-unite-on-push-to-add-holidays-to-school-calendar.html?hpw&rref=nyregion&_r=0">debate</a>
is over whether to add the Muslim holidays of <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.5pt;">Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> to the calendar of the nation’s largest
school system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In the Bay State, districts are responding to
demographic shifts, seeking to find a consistent balance in an increasingly
secular world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In New York, the situation is far more
interesting. In 2009, the City Council (with only one dissenter) <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/nyregion/01muslim.html">approved</a> a
resolution calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to add the two holidays to the
school calendar. The dissenter, Councilmember and former Attorney General G.
Oliver Koppell (D-Bronx), worried about the potential for a proliferation of
holidays, inquired, “</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Where are we going to end with this?” The answer, as it turns out, is
based in no small part on how well different communities are able to organize. </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Five
years later, with a Mayor in office who campaigned to add the holidays to the
calendar, what we’ve witnessed is the culmination of efforts to mobilize an
entire population to wield political power—call it a “secular awakening” of
sorts</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">. As the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times </i>wrote, the vigor and organization
of the effort is “</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.5pt;">a testament to how the city’s Muslim community is gaining a measure of
political confidence</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The renewed campaign
to get holy days on the school calendar comes on the heels of the <a href="http://observer.com/2013/03/a-muslim-democratic-club-rises-in-new-york/">launch</a>
of the City’s first Muslim-American Democratic Club, the aptly named <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://mdcny.org/">Muslim
Democratic Club of New York (MDCNY)</a> in 2013—<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">a club that understands that its mission is to simultaneously <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">inspire </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">deliver</i>.</b></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As MDCNY
states, its <a href="http://mdcny.org/about-2/">mission</a> is to, “<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">mobilize and empower the
American Muslim community in NYC by nurturing a culture of civic
participation.” That lofty and important aspiration is grounded in a real
politik concern as well. “Our goal in establishing a democratic club is to
increase the number of American Muslim triple prime Democratic voters” (that
is, voters who cast ballots consistently in primary, general, and special
elections).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Other
organizations, from the <span style="color: black;">Arab-American </span>Family
Support Center<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> (<a href="http://www.aafscny.org/">founded</a> in 1994), to the</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span>Arab American Association of New York (<a href="http://www.arabamericanny.org/history/">launched</a> in 2001), which
worked with NYU to produce a groundbreaking <a href="http://www.arabamericanny.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ArabAmericanSurvey-0512-web.pdf">survey</a>
of Arab Americans in NYC in 2012, community groups serving NYC’s Arab American
community are thriving as the population in the Metro area continues to climb
(hard data is notoriously difficult to come by, but the <a href="http://b.3cdn.net/aai/ad6b1f98d6a3095ff6_q8m6i6zno.pdf">general</a>
direction is clear). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">It goes without saying, of course, that
even within these groups, there is immense diversity. Arab American groups are
made up of members of many of the world’s great faiths and the membership of
Muslim groups is a cross-section of the City in that it is a mixture of
American and foreign-born advocates. In 2009, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times </i>noted that this very diversity could be an obstacle to
effective political organizing and that the community had, at times, “</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">seen
its social and political ambitions hamstrung by schisms among competing groups.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">That
lesson—of learning to compromise <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">internally
</i>in order to project a unified, forceful position <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">externally</i>—is part of how a community learns to transform its
economic and demographic clout into political power</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">The
next step—after celebrating what we hope will be a great victory on school
holidays—is to bring that same political energy and passion to bear on issues
that affect people beyond the community</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">. Indeed, by the 2017
election, my hope as a New Yorker is that the MDCNY and others are getting
calls from candidates and elected officials not only about issues of particular
salience to the Muslim community—like school holidays and surveillance—but on a
whole host issues, from landmarking and tax policy to economic development and
transportation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">It
will be at that moment when the awakening of a community will have become
cemented into the political fabric of the City, never again to be overlooked
and forever more to be valued as a key contributor throughout the five
boroughs.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-3337973771019992972014-04-22T08:00:00.000-04:002014-04-22T08:00:00.539-04:00From Romance to Realism: Connecting the Boroughs<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“What
thrills me about trains is not their size or their equipment but the fact that
they are moving, that they embody a connection between unseen places.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
--Marianne Wiggins, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Shadow-Catcher-A-Novel/dp/0743265211">The
Shadow Catcher</a></i>, 2008</div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Yesterday, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times </i>architecture critic Michael
Kimmelman <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/21/arts/design/imagining-a-streetcar-line-along-the-waterfront.html?hpw&rref=arts">wrote</a>
about the need for a streetcar line to connect the burgeoning neighborhoods
along the Queens and Brooklyn waterfronts. While some of these neighborhoods
(such as Downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City) are well served by transit
vis-à-vis the “Manhattan Core,” they lack reliable, efficient options for
inter-borough travel (with the notable exception of the ever-maligned but
ever-more-popular G train).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In endorsing
a streetcar line (nicknamed the “desire line”), Kimmelman admits that buses may
provide a “more obvious solution,” but that a bus would lack the “romance” of a
streetcar. Kimmelman is nothing if not consistent—his columns on the current
and future state of Penn Station often <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/arts/design/at-penn-station-seizing-a-chance-to-right-a-wrong.html">dwell</a>
on what was lost in the destruction of the old Penn Station rather than
necessarily where the rebuilding of a new “head house” should rank in the
pecking order of Midtown Manhattan’s public transportation wish-list.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now, I’ll
admit—as someone who dreams of the <a href="http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/930/454/Amtrak-California-Zephyr-Train-Route-Guide.pdf">California
Zephyr</a> and gets excited by <a href="http://www.nationaltrainday.com/s/">National
Train Day</a>, more sympathetic to this view, I could not be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">However, there are bolder, more urgent
priorities than the “desire line” that the City and State of New York should be
focusing on to improve inter-borough service outside Manhattan. Indeed, the
best plan of all—the “X” line—would seize on existing rights of way to
stimulate investment in neighborhoods beyond the waterfront that could make up
the job corridors of New York’s 21<sup>st</sup> century economy.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Regional
Plan Association first proposed the “X” line, which stretches from the Bay
Ridge waterfront to the South Bronx in a semicircle route, in its <a href="http://library.rpa.org/pdf/RPA-Plan3-A-Region-at-Risk.pdf">Third Regional
Plan</a> in 1996. And since that time, many folks with far more knowledge of
NYC transit than yours truly—from <a href="http://frumin.net/ation/2007/06/le_triboro_rx.html">Michael Frumin</a>
(whose map is shown below) to <a href="http://secondavenuesagas.com/2008/03/06/inside-the-plans-for-the-circumferential-subway-route/">Ben
Kabak</a> to <a href="https://www.vanshnookenraggen.com/_index/2010/08/the-futurenycsubway-tribororx-atlantic-ave-express/">Andrew
Lynch</a> have added to the chorus of voices clamoring for this transformative
cross-town line.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdd3Iwkt4eRpYdPBZCR0j91cvxw07pp6w2SSV9l-UzUPWt75v4uLnsgOHy0BUAcrwvrYgzrp52mNEhNDLsvT4dS43yikJo44ri6p162niDVF8P3wprRnhl5DaLMZf0yM9CSe-xClBieJ-o/s1600/triboro+rx.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdd3Iwkt4eRpYdPBZCR0j91cvxw07pp6w2SSV9l-UzUPWt75v4uLnsgOHy0BUAcrwvrYgzrp52mNEhNDLsvT4dS43yikJo44ri6p162niDVF8P3wprRnhl5DaLMZf0yM9CSe-xClBieJ-o/s1600/triboro+rx.png" height="400" width="375" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In short,
the “X” line would travel along the old B<span style="background-color: white;">ay
Ridge Line, which makes a broad arc through southern Brooklyn from Bay Ridge to
Broadway Junction. It would then use the Canarsie Line (L) until it turns
towards Bushwick. It would then run through Ridgewood, Middle Village, Maspeth,
Jackson Heights, and Astoria before rising onto the Hell Gate Bridge and
terminating in the South Bronx.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 2012,
Kimmelman <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/arts/design/a-proposal-for-penn-station-and-madison-square-garden.html?pagewanted=all">declared</a>,
“<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">We have become a city
too cynical about big change, resigned to the impossibility of unraveling bureaucratic
entanglements, beholden to private interests, inured to commercialism and
compromise.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">I agree with this critique—but
it is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">imperative that our response to it
be properly directed to maximize scarce resources and build up communities that
have traditionally been underserved by transit and are in need of investment
for future growth</b>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">This week, the RPA is
hosting its annual Assembly with an eye toward its <a href="http://www.rpa.org/article/rpa-launches-fourth-regional-plan">Fourth</a>
Regional Plan. While it is beyond dispute that the waterfront districts have
benefitted from zoning changes, reductions in crime, and other public efforts
over the past 20 years, they have also been able to attract billions in private
investment <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">even without </i>ideal
cross-borough transit access (though the East River Ferry has significantly
improved this service).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">As a result, my hope is that
the RPA uses this opportunity to make the “X” line a centerpiece of its vision
for regional transportation. More than ever before, connectivity outside the
Manhattan Core is central to New York’s continued success and few projects hold
the potential to bring communities together in support of mass transit like the
“X”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-7499354569524189462014-04-18T08:00:00.000-04:002014-04-18T08:00:07.852-04:00Connectivity and the Prisoner's Dilemma<i>Bay State Brahmin will be off on Monday in honor of Patriots Day. We'll be back on Tuesday, April 22.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“The
peculiar problem of constant connectivity: any silence of more than a few hours
provokes apocalyptic thoughts.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
-- Dave Eggers, <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hologram-King-Novel-Vintage/dp/0307947513"><span style="color: blue;">A Hologram for the King</span></a></span></u>, 2013</div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Last week, labor unions and corporate leaders
in France <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/12/world/europe/in-france-a-move-to-limit-off-the-clock-work-emails.html?_r=0">agreed</a>
on a framework to limit connectivity for at least 11 consecutive hours a day.
This </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">“obligation
to disconnect from remote communications tools” is designed to ensure that individuals
are actually able to be free from the 24/7, on-call demands that have come to
characterize many U.S. workplaces, especially in the years since the Great
Recession.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">While France is (in)famous for embracing a
blunt approach to labor regulations, there are certain contexts in which
regulation short of absolute bans (literally turning off the switch) will
invariably fail to achieve the desired ends. Indeed, the world of ever-present
connectivity is just such a context—a classic prisoner’s dilemma where all
would benefit from signing off and checking out, but the incentives are so
strong for people to be constantly available that all end up feeling pressured
to always be “on-call.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">As </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Allison
Rimm, a management consultant, <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/style/2014/04/16/france-moves-ban-late-night-work-emails-but-workers-check-messages-all-night/ZoFJg3FWIuYLnJpgoqYqeN/story.html">told</a>
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boston Globe</i>, “You can have all
the policies in the world. But if you are the leader, and you’re sending
late-night e-mails, that creates a certain culture. It’s a real leadership
issue.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Part of the reason why connectivity and the
effort to achieve work-life balance constitutes a classic prisoner’s dilemma is
that many people eschew the very idea of balance in the first place. As former
General Electric Chairman and CEO Jack Welch <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB124726415198325373">said</a> in
2009, “</span>There’s no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life
choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And in 2011,
Chief Judge Loretta Preska of the United States Court for the Southern District
of New York issued a historic ruling in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">EEOC
v. Bloomberg L.P.</span></i><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">, 778 F. Supp. 2d 458 (S.D.N.Y. 2011),
stating:<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">The law does not mandate “work-life balance.” It does not
require companies to ignore employees' work-family tradeoffs – and they are
tradeoffs – when deciding about employee pay and promotions. It does not
require that companies treat pregnant women and mothers better or more
leniently than others. All of these things may be desirable, they may make
business sense, and they may be "forward-thinking." But they are not
required by law…</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">In
a company like</span> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Bloomberg<b>,</b></span> <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">which explicitly makes
all-out dedication its expectation, making a decision that preferences family
over work comes with consequences.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">I believe Preska’s interpretation of the law
as written is the correct one. But of course, that only begs the question—so
often asked by Chief Justice Earl Warren—is the law right? Is it good? The
answer—at least for the majority of Americans who desire greater balance—would
seem to be no.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">As is so often the case, technology itself
offers a solution—this time to the constant connectivity problem. Apps offering
“freedom” from connection have <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/07/23/204848805/distractions-in-the-digital-age-call-for-apps-to-block-sites">proliferated</a>
in recent years, helping thousands of Americans unilaterally detach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/24/business/volkswagen-curbs-company-e-mail-in-off-hours.html">reported</a>
in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times</i>, some corporations have
taken this step company-wide, with Volkswagen shutting down its Blackberry
servers off-hours.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">As I sit here at 1 A.M. finishing this entry,
I am not naïve enough to think that American companies will soon follow
suit—unless, of course, the companies themselves are convinced that such
disconnection is a net <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">positive </i>to
productivity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Indeed, as Philip Roth told <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.gq.com/entertainment/books/200811/icon-of-the-year-philip-roth-writer?printable=true">GQ</a></i>,
“</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">I can only
really write when I'm alone in a place that’s mine, that I’m accustomed to, and
there's no interruption. I don't have a phone. I don’t have anything that can
distract me. And I spend the hours ruminating. If you spend six or seven hours
ruminating on your invention, the next part of it will come to you.</span>”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
You don’t
have to be world-famous author to realize how connectivity leads to burnout and
disconnecting to rejuvenation. Recent <a href="http://www.gfi.com/blog/survey-81-of-u-s-employees-check-their-work-mail-outside-work-hours/">surveys</a>
have shown that over 80 percent of American workers check work email on
weekends and over half of workers respond to emails off-hours either in close
to real-time. This pattern contributes to a high rate of stress among U.S.
workers that is <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/08/02/stress-at-work-is-bunk-for-business/">estimated</a>
to cost the economy about $300 billion annually.</div>
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<br /></div>
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In the end,
like any prisoner’s dilemma, the only lasting solution to the problem of
constant connectivity likely lies in collective action. In our nation, that
action is unlikely to come from the government. As a result, advocates must convince
business leaders to change their policies—for the good of their profits and the
people they employ.<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-11230186854785189682014-04-17T08:00:00.000-04:002014-04-17T08:00:09.210-04:00True Transparency in Gov’t: A “Common Sense” Approach <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I know it when I see it</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">-- Potter Stewart,
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Jacobellis v. Ohio</span></i><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">,</span><i> </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">378 U.S. 184 </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(1964) (concurring)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">Last year, in a dispute surrounding emails
allegedly sent by then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer concerning an
investigation of officials at AIG, New York Supreme Court Justice Christopher
Cahill ruled that </span><span style="background: white;">that <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the use of personal email accounts by
government officials for agency-related business cannot be used as a shield
against disclosure under the State’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL).</b> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white;">“Pursuant to judicial precedent and the underpinnings
of FOIL, the [Office of the Attorney General] has both the responsibility and
the obligation to gain access to the private email account of former Attorney
General Spitzer to determine whether the documents contained therein should be
disclosed to petitioner in accordance with its FOIL request.” </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Smith v. N.Y. State Office of the
AG</span></i><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">, 2012 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 4166 (Sup. Ct. Albany Cty. 2012).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The case continues to wind its way through New York’s courts.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> Just last week, </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">the
<i>New York Law Journal </i><a href="http://www.newyorklawjournal.com/id=1202650268871/Hearing-Set-in-Battle-to-Obtain-Spitzer-Emails-Under-FOIL#ixzz2yOPlmsIA">reported</a>
that the State continues to argue that “</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">FOIL does not compel disclosure of records that are not in
the possession or control of the state at the time the request is made.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">Spitzer isn’t the only elected official in New York who has sought
an end-around FOIL.</span></b><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">
Governor Andrew Cuomo (in)famously <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/17/nyregion/a-bid-to-keep-the-governors-e-mails-in-the-dark.html">uses</a>
BlackBerry PIN messages that are not retained by provider Research in Motion
and do not leave a paper trail. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg <a href="http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20131001/civic-center/mayor-deputy-used-private-email-addresses-for-city-business">used</a>
“Bloomberg.net” email addresses with his top officials, siphoning public
business off of “official” email and on to private servers that are either
beyond the reach of FOIL or, at the very least, extremely difficult for public
agencies to track down. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">In 2002, Former Mayor Rudolph </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">Giuliani </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.5pt;"><a href="http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130917/new-york-city/with-3-months-left-bloomberg-admin-has-no-plan-save-many-city-emails">sent</a>
his official papers to a nonprofit he controlled instead of transferring
custody directly to the city’s Municipal Archives.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">All of this has taken place despite the fact
that New York’s Committee on Open Government (COOG) has <a href="http://docs.dos.ny.gov/coog/ftext/f15893.htm">issued</a> advisory
opinions declaring that private communications, when used to contract public
business, are subject to FOIL. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“</b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">[E]mail kept, transmitted or received by a town official in
relation to the performance of his or her duties is subject to the Freedom of
Information Law, even if the official ‘uses his private email address’ and his
own computer.”</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Furthermore,
it is curious the lengths elected officials go to avoid FOIL given that FOIL
specifically provides an <a href="http://www.dos.ny.gov/coog/foil2.html#s87">exception</a>
for “inter-agency and intra-agency” deliberative materials (<i>see </i>N.Y.
Pub. Off. Law Sec. 87(2)(g)) and courts routinely <a href="http://www.newyorklawjournal.com/id=1202650607454">uphold</a> the
withholding of material about press strategy and other potentially sensitive
political decision-making.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">So
what’s a good government advocate for transparency to do? How do we determine
what is a problematic end around FOIL vs. what is a routine practice essential
to the open and frank deliberation that any political office must necessarily
engage in?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBIldKZETbZeigU2ZusVDdbG8hjez0w2zr7hSd_DztEYTrBo1Z4lokNQrUUo0-YSMKcJ2t7DDhHmilQ79Zgx5XH1OkwZi3-UfaimH6RpOVB-ZueExoECqbcowpMtUjyVrjgm8jz2Gu-NZ_/s1600/watergate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBIldKZETbZeigU2ZusVDdbG8hjez0w2zr7hSd_DztEYTrBo1Z4lokNQrUUo0-YSMKcJ2t7DDhHmilQ79Zgx5XH1OkwZi3-UfaimH6RpOVB-ZueExoECqbcowpMtUjyVrjgm8jz2Gu-NZ_/s1600/watergate.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Embodiment of Government Secrecy.<br />
CC License: Flickr user "Raoul Pop"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: white;">First,
we can acknowledge how </span><b>technology has
far outstripped FOIL</b><span style="background-color: white;"> (which was initially passed in the wake of Watergate,
in 1976) </span><b>and that new regulations and
penalties may need to be devised to increase the potential cost of moving
governmental communications “off book.” </b><span style="background-color: white;">For instance, there may well be </span><i>no
</i><span style="background-color: white;">reason why official communications should occur outside of official
channels that are ultimately within the possession of a given government
entity. If that is indeed the case, perhaps penalties should attach to the use
of private communications for government work, regardless of whether the
private email was used in an effort to evade FOIL.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">More
importantly, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I think we need to apply a
little dose of common sense</b>—the type that Justice Stewart was referencing
what he penned his famous line about knowing pornography when he sees it, or
that the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals discussed in </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">South Carolina State Ports Auth. v. FMC</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">, 243 F.3d 165, 174
(4th Cir. 2001) (determining that an adjudication “</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">walks, talks, and squawks very
much like a lawsuit”).</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">That
common sense approach would look at the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">subjective
motivation</b> of the communication in question. For instance, was the use of
private email deliberately employed in an effort to avoid FOIL? <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">After all, if it looks like an end around
FOIL, it’s probably an end around FOIL.</b> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The
<i>New York Post </i>editorial board recently <a href="http://nypost.com/2014/03/22/hes-got-e-mail/">stated</a>, “</span><span style="background: #FBFBFB; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">If politicians can escape
scrutiny simply by doing their work via private e-mails, we lose all hope for
government accountability and transparency.” I agree and I hope that New York’s
courts rule in favor of complete disclosure of public work, whether on
government servers or private email.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: #FBFBFB; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">However, regardless of how
the issue plays out in the courts, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">citizens
should demand that elected officials clearly and transparently share their
disclosure policy</b>—both what they will affirmatively share (and in what
format/timeframe) and what they will withhold so that voters can hold their
leaders accountable for valuing true transparency.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-39320650437195803262014-04-16T08:00:00.000-04:002014-04-16T08:00:12.404-04:00Transportation Tech: From the Mass Pike to the Friendly Skies<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“Last night
on the Mass Pike, thought I was losing you. Last night on the Mass Pike, I
fell in love with you.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
--“Mass Pike,” The Get Up Kids, 1999</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Few things are more frustrating than sitting
in traffic at a tollbooth, taxiing for takeoff for hours, or standing on
crowded trains directed by century-old switches. But what if I told you that we
had technologies at the ready to address each of these problems, only to have
failed to adequately seize on their potential?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Last week,
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Globe </i><a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/04/09/highway-project-holds-promise-for-revamped-region/2lCX89t55FWnHWSxmZe2xM/story.html">profiled</a>
forthcoming changes to the Mass Turnpike in Allston, noting that <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">straightening the turnpike will
improve safety, smooth traffic, and free up 60 acres of land, some of which is
prime territory a stone’s throw from the shores of the Charles River.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Today, I want to focus on
one particular aspect of the plan—the introduction of 100 percent cashless
(electronic) tolling on the Pike—as well as several other transportation
technologies that will pay long-term dividends if we commit to investing in
them today.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As the map
below from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission shows, cashless tolling is
being embraced by states across the country as a way to reduce congestion (and
the pollution/productivity effects associated with it) and save money on toll
collection that can make a small, but meaningful contribution to rebuilding our
nation’s roads and bridges. For instance, the Golden Gate Bridge’s new cashless
tolling system is <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/27/4150702/golden-gate-bridges-new-cashless-tollway-promises-convenience-for-privacy">expected</a>
to save $16 million over eight years (the bridge faces a $66 million budget
deficit over the next five years).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRY4ajxytZ-3j6-20n-sDA7a13Kf1Mp9TQUPprJvbD2dCMbrnmbLMToKlVFom-7C47mwYLfS04VB6c0fgns5gr50GFagGwKxIqXfnkNVOOE40wj4VBS8J1M-M-zmQ2EyTcD19lrKdaSECp/s1600/electronic+toll+map.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRY4ajxytZ-3j6-20n-sDA7a13Kf1Mp9TQUPprJvbD2dCMbrnmbLMToKlVFom-7C47mwYLfS04VB6c0fgns5gr50GFagGwKxIqXfnkNVOOE40wj4VBS8J1M-M-zmQ2EyTcD19lrKdaSECp/s1600/electronic+toll+map.png" height="481" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
This is
particularly important in light of the troubles with the national Highway Trust
Fund, which is fast <a href="http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwaytrustfund/">approaching</a>
insolvency <a href="http://www.gao.gov/key_issues/funding_nations_surface_transportation_system/issue_summary">thanks</a>
to a gas tax that hasn’t budged in 20 years and the proliferation of more fuel-efficient
vehicles.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Cashless tolling should be a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">requirement </i>for any new federally funded
transportation project that includes tolls and the Highway Trust Fund should
incentivize states to adopt cashless tolling by providing capital grants for
implementation of new systems and cost-sharing arrangements with states.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Another
critical transportation technology that has encountered a litany of challenges
in recent years is the Federal Aviation Administration’s rollout of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Next Generation air traffic control</b>
(“NextGen”). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white;">The FAA’s largest-ever procurement, NextGen would
replace radar-based ground control with GPS navigation and require airlines to
adopt technology that allows pilots and air traffic controllers to have
improved access to real time data, allowing planes to fly more direct routes
closer together, improving efficiency and productivity in our nation’s skies.
When completed, the project is expected to yield a system that can handle three
times more air traffic while reducing FAA’s operating costs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In addition,
NextGen is expected to <a href="http://www.law360.com/articles/497460/delays-threaten-faa-s-40b-air-traffic-control-overhaul">yield</a>
the following benefits by 2030:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background: white;">More than $100 billion in net economic benefits</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background: white;">27 million hours in flight delays saved</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background: white;">Reduce carbon emissions by cutting 4.6 billion gallons
of fuel</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
However, as
the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation recently <a href="http://www.oig.dot.gov/sites/dot/files/FAA%20Underlying%20Causes%20for%20NextGen%20Delays%5E2-25-14.pdf">found</a>,
the FAA has failed to embrace<span style="background: white;"> NextGen’s potential</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">. This includes a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">failure to rapidly introduce GPS capabilities at many of the nation’s
busiest airports, including those in the NYC-metro region that account for
nearly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/28/business/ny-airports-account-for-half-of-all-delays.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">half</a>
of all flight delays nationwide.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The list of transportation technologies that
are underused goes on and on. In New York, Albany continues to <a href="http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/611885-advocates-call-on-albany-to-increase-speed-cameras-in-nyc/">stonewall</a>
the City’s efforts to expand the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">speed
camera program</b>—a critical part of Mayor de Blasio’s “Vision Zero”
initiative (though Governor Cuomo <a href="http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2014/04/8543051/cuomo-promises-speed-camera-discussion-after-recess">insists</a>
that the issue will be taken up after the holiday recess). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Few cities—including New York—have committed
to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">transforming antiquated street parking
with technology</b> (like that in use in <a href="http://sfpark.org/">San
Francisco</a>) that promises to reduce congestion, improve safety (with fewer
cars circling for spaces/double parking), and more appropriately value public
space.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">And we continue to rely on mechanical,
switch-based subway systems constructed in the early 20<sup>th</sup> century
instead of using <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Communication Based
Train Controls</b> (CBTC), which offer <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/nyregion/22subway.html">improved</a>
reliability, lower costs, and greater efficiency. Despite the fact that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CBTC_Map_July2012.PNG">systems</a>
around the world have implemented CBTC, only a single NYC subway line (the L)
currently has CBTC, with the 7 slated to have it installed by 2017. Worse,
under the current MTA capital needs assessment (2015-2034)—a plan funded almost
entirely with debt—it will take until the 2030s (or beyond!) for the entire NYC
system to have CBTC installed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Leveraging
technology in transportation will pay for itself. But that will only happen if
we generate strong, grassroots support by making these esoteric projects “real”
to the public. Indeed, Americans have <a href="http://baystatebrahmin.blogspot.com/2014/03/protecting-taxpayers-burdens-of-proof.html">shown</a>
time and again that they are willing to fund infrastructure improvements when
they understand precisely how they stand to benefit. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Global Gateway Alliance is trying to generate
public awareness of airport improvements in NYC, just as the Straphangers Campaign
has long advocated for the interests of bus and subway riders. What’s needed
next is recognition by elected officials that the benefits of these
technologies will flow to constituents in every corner of the
city/state/nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-91745246825427222852014-04-15T08:00:00.000-04:002014-04-15T08:00:08.762-04:00Walking the Walk: The Courage to Believe in Politics<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">“</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Elections belong to the
people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and
burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters<span style="color: #181818;">.”</span></span><span style="color: #181818;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">-- President Abraham
Lincoln <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Yesterday, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times </i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/14/us/obama-effect-inspiring-few-to-seek-office.html?hpw&rref=us">showcased</a>
the campaign of Eric Lesser, a college classmate of mine who is running for the
Massachusetts State Senate in</span> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">the First
Hampden and Hampshire District</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">. However, instead of viewing Eric’s efforts as emblematic of a
Millennial generation inspired to serve, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times </i>characterized Eric as an outlier amidst a generation that has
in many ways opted out of the rough and tumble life of American elective
politics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">This withdrawal should concern all of us who
continue to see public service (which includes politics!) as an endeavor worthy
of our commitment and sacrifice, particularly because the very factors that
have turned so many young people away from running for office may also turn
them away from being the type of “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Active-Liberty-Interpreting-Democratic-Constitution/dp/0307274942">active</a>”
citizens our nation needs to thrive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The cynicism that now pervades American
politics is all the more concerning because, for generations, belief in the
American “experiment” has been something of a civic religion in a nation lacking
a collective spiritualism. As historian Gordon Wood <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1997/aug/14/dusting-off-the-declaration/">wrote</a>,
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">We have even built a temple to preserve and display the great
documents consecrating the founding of the American creed—the Declaration of
Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. At the National
Archives in Washington, D.C., these holy texts are enshrined in massive,
bronze-framed, bulletproof, moisture-controlled glass containers that have been
drained of all harmful oxygen.</span><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And yet, despite the fact that we live in a
cynical age, <b>there can be no mistaking the fact that the American People <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">want </i>to believe in our experiment; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">want </i>to believe that our whole is much
greater than the sum of our parts; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">want </i>to
believe that public service is an honorable path taken by honorable women and
men</b>. As the fictionalized FDR (played by Bill Murray) tells King George VI
(played by Samuel West) in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hyde Park on Hudson</i>,
“<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">We think they
see all our flaws. But, that’s not what they are looking to find when they look
to us.</span> “ <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Rather, as Michael Jonas <a href="http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/News-and-Features/Features/2014/Spring/001-Harsh-history-lessons.aspx#.U0yhXeZdXfs">points</a>
out in the current issue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Commonwealth
Magazine</i>, voters are looking for “</span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">charismatic, visionary leader</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">[s]” to challenge our assumptions and inspire
belief in the possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwT3_3cfPD7aoc4zA6kn5ffC4E3Nlz_pmlHVZwZ1qegPV59HrdadDhkqs37-_pqC8HeuWz98FrgupUrmQcRnWUJy2jTFRn8ZVplGb04isj2CsrQt_taGBTqp0_PlNGCkRjaTtrpfjguDmu/s1600/charlie+ticket+4+15+13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwT3_3cfPD7aoc4zA6kn5ffC4E3Nlz_pmlHVZwZ1qegPV59HrdadDhkqs37-_pqC8HeuWz98FrgupUrmQcRnWUJy2jTFRn8ZVplGb04isj2CsrQt_taGBTqp0_PlNGCkRjaTtrpfjguDmu/s1600/charlie+ticket+4+15+13.jpg" height="400" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>We Will Finish The Race and the<br />Experiment Will Live On.</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Those leaders don’t emerge out of the ether.
They are individuals who put actions being their words and jump in the ring,
all with the <a href="http://hlrecord.org/?p=12600">courage to lose</a>. </b>As
Eric said, “<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">If
you want to be involved in politics, at a certain point you’ve got to walk the
walk.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">For those of us intent on
running for office, “walking the walk” includes taking it to the campaign
trial—petitioning, fundraising, door-knocking, and <b>persuading our fellow
citizens not merely that we deserve their vote, but that the vote is a power
worth exercising. </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">But even more, it means
<b>asserting </b></span><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">the all-too-radical
belief in what David Brooks <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/23/opinion/brooks-why-we-love-politics.html">calls</a>
“the nobility of politics”—that politics is a profession worthy of our energies
and that making personal sacrifices for</span><span style="background: white; color: black;"> the common good is an inherent quality of good citizenship.</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; color: black;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background-color: white;">149 years to the day after
the death of our greatest President, and a year after bombs tore through </span>the
heart of New England’s most sacred secular holiday, let’s remember how even in
America’s darkest moments, We The People have rallied around our great
experiment.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">As Professor Allen Guelzo <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/lincolns-sound-bite-have-faith-in-democracy/">wrote</a>
about the Gettysburg Address:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">The genius…lay not in its language or in its brevity (virtues
though these were), but in the new birth it gave to those who had become
discouraged and wearied by democracy’s follies, and in the reminder that
democracy’s survival rested ultimately in the hands of citizens who saw something
in democracy worth dying for. We could use that reminder again today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Today, the
urgency with which we are called to belief in the democratic experiment is as
strong as it has ever been. </div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-5132631343729026312014-04-14T08:00:00.000-04:002014-04-14T08:00:11.316-04:00Big Data and Mass Transit: From Bikes to Buses<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“I have
travelled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best
people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out
the year.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
-- <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/29/magazine/tomorrow-never-knows.html">Editor</a>,
Prentiss Hall Books, 1957</div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Last week,
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Globe </i><a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/04/10/data-driven-pop-bus-service-launch-boston/yz4EjzZC9nXnl22O6JcV2I/story.html">profiled</a>
an effort by 23-year-old entrepreneur <span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Matthew George to use data analytics to provide “pop-up”
bus service across many underserved routes in the Cambridge-Boston area. This “pop-up”
service—called <a href="http://www.bridj.com/">Bridj</a>—is designed to use
data about “where people live, work, and play” to predict where non-stop
service is needed and adjust schedules based on time of day/day of week, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">George’s introduction of disruptive analytics to the
metro-Boston transit network is long overdue and I’m anxious to see how his
system works (and to try it myself come July 4th weekend). But, as noted by MIT
Professor </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Nigel Wilson, George’s service
(which is expected to launch at a cost of $5-8 pre trip) has the potential to
siphon riders from the MBTA. Indeed, while the Bridj homepage champions “Better
Transit. For All,” it is not yet clear whether the business model can rely
solely on routes not directly served by the T. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">In a normal setting, competition would be an
unquestionable good—with the better product/price/service winning out over
time. However, public transit is a unique animal—a deeply subsidized public
good that must cater to the needs of very low-income city dwellers (among
others). <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">To
his credit, George seems quite cognizant of this fact and has indicated that he
hopes to reduce fares to a price approaching a single-ride T-pass ($2-2.50). <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">However, it is ultimately not the job of
entrepreneurs like George to worry about how their innovations might affect
competitors like the MBTA.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Instead,
as I briefly <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/letters/2013/04/24/innovation-efficiency-can-boost-regional-transit-systems/Fhz0YtauDo8mTEGmcymqsO/story.html">noted</a>
last year, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">what the MBTA and other
transit agencies from New York City’s MTA to the smallest regional network in
Berkshire County need to do, is to get in the data analytics game themselves</b>.
In Boston, this effort should include investing in smaller vans that can
operate at lower cost than articulated buses, depending on demand, GPS tracking
to allow riders to plan their trips, and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">demand-responsive
transport</b> during late nights and weekends. In the spirit of George’s “pop-up”
service, demand responsive transport covers a fixed service area but without
fixed routes, allowing it to cater to fluctuations in ridership.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">This
type of planning should not be limited to buses, but should instead be used to
integrate a municipal transit network’s bicycles as well. In NYC, CitiBike
recently released a trove of <a href="http://citibikenyc.com/system-data">data</a>
charting hundreds of thousands of rides and, as shown in the graph below from
the </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">NYU Rudin </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">Center for Transportation
Policy and Management,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"> there is a slight, but
meaningful <a href="http://wagner.nyu.edu/rudincenter/2014/03/citi-bike-and-reactionary-biking/">correlation</a>
between subway disruptions and use of CitiBike along those routes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfjrerTh8mLnoGE1gjqbYAmQfB3OVf5t8mp_F2l9tvihGUFtkHJbKoPJJXuTUAJl8lIvuHSPqb_3uvUM2Kys_UN8WBjnG8CdHJguP1YsV8tBWFtKi6VBfMEyOjChXUPe53IauDMVT5bmnR/s1600/citibike+and+subways.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfjrerTh8mLnoGE1gjqbYAmQfB3OVf5t8mp_F2l9tvihGUFtkHJbKoPJJXuTUAJl8lIvuHSPqb_3uvUM2Kys_UN8WBjnG8CdHJguP1YsV8tBWFtKi6VBfMEyOjChXUPe53IauDMVT5bmnR/s1600/citibike+and+subways.png" height="308" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Dubbed “reactionary biking” by the Rudin </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">Center</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">, this <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">pattern
should lead to partnerships between the MTA and CitiBike</b>. For instance,
when there is a planned service outage—especially a long-term outage, like the 5-week
closure of the G train’s Greenpoint Tube planned for this summer—MTA should not
only provide replacement bus service, but also work with CitiBike to extend
bike share to affected communities. Similarly, the two systems should share
data on ridership so that CitiBike can do a better job of balancing stations
near transit hubs which, at certain times of the day, are overrun with
passengers (most notably on the Lexington Line (456)).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 2012,
Peter <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">Sondergaard</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span>of the Gartner Group <a href="http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/1824919">declared</a>, “Information is
the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine.”</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
If
Sondergaard is right, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">public transit
systems cannot sit back in the horse and buggy age while private companies like
Bridj act like the Maseratis of the data world.</b> They need to get in the
game themselves and use “big data” to increase efficiency and improve service
for the millions of Americans who rely on buses, trains, trams, and bike share.</div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-68872392786712030272014-04-11T08:00:00.002-04:002014-04-11T08:00:11.777-04:00What it Means to be #1: Happiness and Social Policy<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“Gross
National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestic Product.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
-- His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Last week, Nicholas Kristof
of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times </i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/opinion/were-not-no-1-were-not-no-1.html?ref=opinion">noted</a>
that between 1975 and 2006, “99 percent of the French population actually
enjoyed more gains in that period than 99 percent of the American population.”
In other words, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">if you exclude the top 1
percent, the average French citizen did better than the average American</b>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Nevertheless,
on one of the more common metrics used to determine the prosperity and halth of
a nation—the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—the U.S. actually came out on top during
the same period, <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">as </span><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/atkinson-piketty-saezJEL10.pdf"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">the American economy significantly
outperformed the French</span></a></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxWN_1FoChAXqKjCw9xJmdvpcTaUlraBvug3wepKWdTc_rtyJ6rQdGRZhIxBoW6U5TdNr3LNklMdH4UJEZnwkwrI6BvLqdAmtoxlTPkqiAp2QiHRamS8mfoW-erRrXvlK9ksX2YvaM_Voc/s1600/usanumberone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxWN_1FoChAXqKjCw9xJmdvpcTaUlraBvug3wepKWdTc_rtyJ6rQdGRZhIxBoW6U5TdNr3LNklMdH4UJEZnwkwrI6BvLqdAmtoxlTPkqiAp2QiHRamS8mfoW-erRrXvlK9ksX2YvaM_Voc/s1600/usanumberone.jpg" /></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">So who’s “#1”? Before you start chanting,
“U-S-A! U-S-A!” (too late?), let’s take a closer look at just what we’re trying
to measure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">In
recent years, researchers have prodded cities and states to step away from the
traditional measures of prosperity and embrace tools to measure overall
“happiness”.</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> In December
2013, the </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">National
Academy of Sciences issued a <a href="http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=18548">report</a> calling on
governments to ask citizens a series of questions related to their happiness
and to use the results to shape social policy priorities and prescriptions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This type of survey—which
began in the small nation of Bhutan in the early 1970s—has spread to other
nations, like the <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/user-guidance/well-being/index.html">U.K.</a>,
France, and Canada, all the way down to the local level, as in <a href="http://www.somervillema.gov/departments/somerstat/report-on-well--being">Somerville</a>,
Massachusetts. </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Indeed, several U.S. cities are now
experimenting with happiness or wellbeing measures.</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.smgov.net/wellbeing/">Santa Monica</a>,
California, which defines “wellbeing” as, “[p]ersonal satisfaction with life,
influenced by social connections, economic stability, personal safety, physical
surroundings, fulfilling employment, civic engagement, and health,” recently
won a Bloomberg Philanthropies award for its efforts to measure wellbeing and
respond accordingly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In New York,
Megan Golden (NYU) and Liana Downey (Liana Downey & Associates) <a href="http://www.21cforall.org/performance">wrote</a> that the de Blasio
Administration should pilot a happiness survey to determine “whether some
groups are struggling more than others, where problems are concentrated, and
what conditions affect New Yorkers’ happiness the most.” This pilot would
borrow from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which already
surveys Americans every four years about health and life satisfaction, as well
as “Measure of America”, a project of the Social Science
Research Council.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Of course, measuring happiness is easier
said than done. As with any broad survey, getting a representative sample is a
challenge</b>, particularly in a City like New York, where many are often wary
to respond to formal government surveys (see: New York’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/nyregion/survey-suggests-census-undercounted-new-york-city.html?pagewanted=all">experience</a>
with the 2010 Census). Furthermore, since most people filling out the survey
have different definitions of happiness, questions that seek to gauge the
subjective mindset of any population may be inherently suspect.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">An even more fundamental
question exists, however. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">And that is
whether happiness, however defined, should be the goal of social policy in the
first place.</b> As David Brooks <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/08/opinion/brooks-what-suffering-does.html?rref=opinion">wrote</a>
this week, “Happiness wants you to think about maximizing your benefits.
Difficulty and suffering sends you on a different course.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">No, Brooks is not advocating for a political
system that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">promotes </i>difficulty and
suffering. But he’s also cautioning against viewing certain types of suffering
as in need of eradication. To put it in concrete terms, suffering that flows from
hunger, disease, violence, or neglect carries no short or long term benefit
(much to the contrary), whereas the pangs that come with failure, the loss of a
loved one, or can make us fuller people—changed souls, rather than shattered
ones.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Ultimately, since that the unique number of
paths to happiness is roughly as numerous as the number of people alive, the
Framers probably got this one right—namely, that <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the government’s role is to ensure the foundational elements necessary
for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pursuit </i>of happiness (food,
shelter, health care, employment), leaving to the individual citizen to decide
how to chart his own course toward that seemingly universal goal.</b> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-74419948214210421512014-04-10T08:00:00.000-04:002014-04-10T08:00:03.707-04:00The Limits of Language: Longing for Home and Love<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">The limits of my language
are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
-- Ludwig Wittenstein, 1953</div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
“<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">Silence is the language of God, all else is
poor translation</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
--Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkh (aka Rumi), 13<sup>th</sup>
Century Poet<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Bay State
Brahmin is a blog about politics—a topic that easily lends itself to the
written word. However, thanks to a few masterful pieces published over the past
week, the limits of language have been weighing on my mind.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The first
piece is a column titled <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/04/opinion/cohen-in-search-of-home.html?ref=opinion&_r=0">“In
Search of Home”</a> in which Roger Cohen of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> tries to answer the question, “<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">If I had only a few weeks to
live, where would I go?</span>” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Cohen
references an essay in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">London Review
of Books </i>in which James Wood <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n04/james-wood/on-not-going-home">asked</a> the
same question of Christopher Hitchens before Hitchens was diagnosed with
terminal cancer. He told Wood that he would not stay in America, but would
return to Dartmoor, “the landscape of his childhood.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Wood goes on
to write that, “<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The
desire to return, after so long away, is gladly irrational, and is perhaps
premised on the loss of the original home…Home swells as a sentiment because it
has disappeared as an achievable reality.” </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">That may well be true, but Cohen’s
description spoke to a sentiment beyond what can be expressed through the
language of loss. The landscape of Hitchens childhood, Cohen wrote,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">…was the landscape, in other words, of unfiltered experience,
of things felt rather than thought through, of the world in its beauty absorbed
before it is understood, of patterns and sounds that lodge themselves in some
indelible place in the psyche and call out across the years.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The second piece was <a href="http://www.bubandteebs.com/">Jessica Rassette’s</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/fashion/Modern-Love-His-Promise-Would-Not-Be-Denied-.html?ref=modernlove">essay</a>
“His Promise Would Not Be Denied,” for the weekly must-read “Modern Love” in
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
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</div>
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In
describing her then-ex-boyfriend (now husband’s) response to her insistence
that their relationship was over, Rassette wrote, <span style="background-color: white;">“</span><span style="background-color: white;">He loved every footprint I left behind. He kept his dreams of
us tucked away, hoarded them like those gas-station receipts he jams into the
back pocket of his jeans. He loved and longed. He waited.</span>”</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The
two pieces may be about “home” and “love”, respectively, but they are really
about the same thing. They are about a challenge that everyone faces many times
in life—of what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feels </i>right to one’s
soul; of where (and with whom) one’s destiny lies.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Someone once told me—in reference to my love
of both New York City and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts—that it was
imperative that I be</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"> honest with where loyalties lie and that to be truly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">at home </i>in one place or the other
required almost every piece of my heart.<span style="color: black;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span id="goog_456897183"></span><span id="goog_456897184"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">I didn’t know
how to respond to that idea then, and I must admit that I still don’t today.
Language—as it often does—fails to provide a useful instrument. How could I
express the tingling of my chest when that distinctive sign comes into view,
welcoming home sons from Hatfield to Hamilton? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">How could I express
the feeling of turning the corner of 43<sup>rd</sup> and 5<sup>th</sup> Avenue
at twilight—the Chrysler Building illuminated above—and walking on air through Grand
Central Terminal as the ghosts of generations of my family propel me forward, whispering in my ear that I belong under all those stars?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.htm">Self-Reliance</a></i>,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “To</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">be great is to be misunderstood.” But I don’t think that </span><span style="background: white; color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;">Pythagoras,
Socrates, Jesus, Luther, Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton were alone in this
scourge. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Instead, it seems to me that t</b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">o be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">human</i> is to be
misunderstood, or, perhaps more aptly, that to be human is to lack the tools
necessary to be understood—except, that is, for the “tool” of love.</span></b><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="story-body-textstory-content" style="background: white;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">As Rassette notes, “</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Tom and I might glance
at each other with a weary look that means, ‘Do you love me?’ Neither of us
ever has to answer.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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In the end,
if “speech is a river,” Rumi wrote—a flowing dialogue of the inner-workings of
our mind—then “silence is an ocean”—a seemingly bottom-less repository of
secrets out of sight and far from earshot. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Silence—those </b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">thoughts
unspoken, dreams unrequited, tragedies unseen, sentiments unshared—is the “dark
energy/matter” of our world, </span>weighing us down while powering us forward,
to an end we know not of.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7874477936145535711.post-12623190298791713192014-04-09T08:00:00.001-04:002014-04-09T08:00:00.839-04:00Social Impact Bonds: Spurring Innovation in Mass./NYC<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“</b><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Social impact bonds offer an innovative way for public,
private, philanthropic and nonprofit actors to come together and align their
skills and resources in pursuit of measurable, positive social change.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">-- <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/101377537">Kristina Costa</a>, Center for American
Progress, 2014</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Last week,
Dax-Devlon Ross <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/02/tackling-mass-incarceration/">profiled</a>
<a href="http://rocainc.org/">Roca</a>—a Chelsea and Springfield, Mass. based
non-profit designed to steer “high risk” youth away from poverty and violence
and toward gainful employment and a middle-class life. Roca has done something
all too rare in the social service world—commit to a data-driven approach to
securing its goals, whereby success must be proved, rather than assumed.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Roca’s
latest project is designed to reduce recidivism among young men. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">As part of the project, Roca plans to</b><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"> track every interaction
between its employees and the participants in an online data system. At the
first sign of trouble, employees initiate an intervention to get at the
underlying cause of concern and forge a plan to keep the participant on track.</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Roca’s
program was recently awarded <a href="http://www.mass.gov/governor/pressoffice/pressreleases/2014/0129-at-risk-youth-initiative.html">$27
million</a> in seed money from Governor Deval Patrick’s <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">Juvenile Justice “Pay for Success” Initiative</span>.
As stated in the award release:</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">[I]n Massachusetts, 64 percent of young male ex-offenders
reoffend within five years, and only 35 percent of these young men gain
employment within a year of release. Roca’s groundbreaking approach to positive
youth development aims to interrupt the cycle of recidivism by filling a gap in
services for high-risk populations. Through this project, Roca will aim to
reduce the number of days that young men in the program are incarcerated by 40
percent. If this goal is met, the project would generate millions of dollars in
savings to the Commonwealth that fully offset the cost of delivering
services. </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Social
Impact Bond (SIB) model (shown in the nifty graphic from the <a href="http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/uploads/files/a39e8cdf-494f-486e-a8c2-1170c7ffc5c6-rockefeller.pdf">Rockefeller Foundation</a>) holds great promise, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">not simply as a financing mechanism in an era of budget shortfalls, but
as a spur to creative experimentation within cities and states to solve some of
our most pressing problems</b>. SIBs allow government to invest in programs
today that improve the lives of thousands and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">save</i> money over the long term. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7AXMngEx2buJN_dfQOvnXzetHzOvWGpLgClHOwbpr6Qek4RqhqK8Lr1UJ07ChBsRzITuBLWGmCT-rUSK9SByz_KqzdVzzZYV6IYtl5RHUW7b5vQS9Owqo_tOls0g-ftdSqw6xETa5Fz9b/s1600/sib+graphic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7AXMngEx2buJN_dfQOvnXzetHzOvWGpLgClHOwbpr6Qek4RqhqK8Lr1UJ07ChBsRzITuBLWGmCT-rUSK9SByz_KqzdVzzZYV6IYtl5RHUW7b5vQS9Owqo_tOls0g-ftdSqw6xETa5Fz9b/s1600/sib+graphic.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
On some
level, this is not a particularly novel concept. Indeed, business owners have long understood that
investing in new equipment or hiring additional employees imposes short-term
costs in pursuit of long-term profit. American families understand that buying
life insurance and depositing money in their children’s college savings plans
will pay dividends down the line.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Government should be no
different. And yet, we have encountered many situations in recent years where
we fail to make short-term investments that yield long-term gains. For
instance, in New York City, </span>we continue to shelter <a href="http://baystatebrahmin.blogspot.com/2014/02/all-politics-is-localand-federal-how.html">families
without homes</a> for as much as $36,000 per family per year, while rental
assistance with support services for families can cost less than $10,000/family
annually.<br />
<br /></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white;">While SIB programs have heretofore largely been
confined to programs concerning recidivism and formerly incarcerated
individuals, many have openly wondered whether they can be put to use in other
fields, most notably early childhood education and public health initiatives
that allow for concrete measurements over a discrete period of time</span></b><span style="background: white;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white;">In 2012, my boss,
then-Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/16/nyregion/manhattan-borough-president-seeks-bonds-to-expand-head-start.html">proposed</a>
using a SIB to expand availability of </span></span>Early Head Start (EHS), an early
intervention and prevention program for pregnant mothers and families with
children ages 0 – 3. Despite the <a href="http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-widest-achievement-gap">fact</a>
that children who attend Early Head Start are more successful educationally and
emotionally, the program is so poorly funded that it enrolls less than 1
percent of eligible infants. Only 7000 slots are <a href="http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/ehsnrc/Early%20Head%20Start/about.html">funded</a>
for children in all of New York State. Once full-day pre-K is up and running, the Administration should turn its attention to the critical formative years <i>before </i>pre-K, with SIBs as a possible financing mechanism for EHS or other programs.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">SIBs aren’t the only mechanism that should
be used to secure long-term savings. Municipal labor should also play a key
role in this effort through “gain sharing.”</b> 20 years ago, Mayor David
Dinkins <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/07/nyregion/dinkins-announces-panel-on-city-workers-productivity.html">launched</a>
a “Productivity Advisory Council” that advocated for a gain-sharing model that
would streamline city services and share savings with city workers. </div>
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<br /></div>
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One of the
great successes was a Parks Department effort to improve efficiencies in the
mechanics of tree pruning throughout the five boroughs. In short, New York had
been force to cut workers to balance the budget during the early 90s recession.
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">In the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">winter of 1993, the city’s </b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">tree </b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">workers were given the power to craft their
own strategy, with an implicit promise of hiring back some of those laid off
should city workers prove the victors.</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">As noted in a Harvard Business School case
study, “<span style="background: white;">Prior to the study, climbers and pruners
had no input into how the crews were configured or what work they would be
assigned on a given day; these decisions were the prerogative of the
supervisors, only some of whom had any prior forestry experience.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">In two months, the workers’ improvements made them far more efficient
than contractors and saved the city an estimated $100,000.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">Whether through a public-private
SIB model or a gain-sharing model that leverages the expertise and ingenuity of
public employees, cities and states owe it to taxpayers to do all they can to
reduce preventable costs by proactively investing in innovative programs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew L. Kallochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03712753833698745342noreply@blogger.com0