Greed

means accepting more than your fair share when it is offered to you.

Learning

American students are doing poorly in schools; test scores are low relative to other developed nations.  Although we spend more per capita on education than other countries, we're not getting the results.

At the same time access to knowledge has never been easier: the internet is loaded with facts and information - Wikipedia is the main example, but far from the only one.  It would seem that education should be thriving with all this free learning at hand.

The problem, I learned fifty years ago as a new teacher, is a disagreement about the goals of education.  "The knowledge," I said, "is free.  You pay for the credential."

I find it disturbing that employers put so much stake in credentials and so little stake in knowledge.  Years ago, many individuals practiced professions with no formal training at all.  They were self-taught.  Today a self-taught professional is a museum piece.

Yet the primary characteristic of a credential is that the holder has submitted to the rules, regulations, and requirements and, yes, paid the bills, to obtain the credential.

In seeking the social causes of poverty in America we need look no further than lack of education - both in terms of credentials and knowledge.

Through hundreds of years of institutionalized schooling, most of us have lost our regard for learning.  We have given our decision making into the hands of experts, and the average citizen cannot readily be heard, no matter how much he or she knows.

As ordinary citizens we could do little better than encouraging everyone to study and seek the truth.  Besides helping us adapt to a complex modern society, we might encourage a more cooperative approach to our politics.

Powerful People

Despite sensational news coverage, we should understand that powerful people have always worked hard to keep their power.  It was true last year, a hundred years ago, a thousand years ago, and in prehistoric times.  Whether by force or persuasion or bribery or extortion or campaigning and advertising for elections, the "ins" want to stay "in."  And usually they do.

So we should reserve our surprise for those rare occasions when a powerful person willingly leaves the corridors of power for a peaceful quiet retirement.  That would be news!

Anyone seen a quadruple?

My wife and I play a game while driving.

We keep an eye out for a string of trailers, each of a different means of transportation.

We got the idea when we saw an RV pulling a jeep behind, and riding on the back of the jeep were four bicycles.  We called that a triple, although of course the jeep wasn't actually towing the bikes.

Now we're on the lookout for a quadruple.  Maybe a truck towing a big boat which has a small rubber dinghy attached, containing a skateboard.  Or perhaps a fifth wheel with a motocross bike and a kid's scooter.  You get the idea.

Lots of our recreational pursuits involve means of transportation - hang gliders, snow boards, zip lines, ice skates, air boats, hot rods, tricycles (for young and old).  And they're all out on the highways of America.

Send us a photo of your favorite - special mention for a quadruple!

Justice for the poor

It's a sad truth of our system of law that the harshest penalties are dealt out to the poor.  The rich can always hire lawyers, raise bail, and appeal to juries and judges; the poor lack both the means and the social finesse to protect themselves from the harshest judgments and sentences.  Wealthy corporations often settle cases before the investigation leads to criminal charges in court, paying money without admitting liability to have the criminal investigation stopped.

My idea of accountability is that those in the highest positions of wealth and responsibility owe the highest duty to be law abiding and ethical in all that they do; for if such individuals err, they set a bad example for all of society.  In my view, the rich should generally receive the harshest penalties and be denied the ability to buy off the system by negotiating a bargain.

In fact the situation is the opposite, and it's hard to be proud of a system that punishes the poorest and weakest citizens the most harshly.

Eternal Remembrance

After retirement, my wife and I took up genealogy.  As we expanded our database to over 11,000 relatives, we understood on a visceral level that all humans are related, and that history begins with an understanding of people and families.  Now as travelers we are always aware of the contributions of individuals to communities.

But we've discovered that the tools of our trade as genealogists are eroding.  Censuses no longer compile detailed personal information on individuals that is valuable to their descendants; local newspapers no longer publish (and even index) long newsy columns of personal information about residents and their friends and families; families today seldom pay for purchasing a cemetery plot and erecting an expensive polished granite monument.

We live in a throwaway world, and it's depressing to think of us throwing away the details of the lives of so many worthwhile and interesting human beings.

Memories need stimulation; one appreciates that obvious truth as one ages.  I wish that we would return to the kind of permanent human records that used to characterize our society, and imparted such a human dimension to history.

So in a way it's pleasant to see the frequent memorials erected along our highways to remember the victims of highway accidents.  No doubt the highway departments hope to encourage safe driving by reminding us of the perils of the roads, but the brilliant floral embellishments to these roadside markers testify to the love of those left behind.

The start of history is our remembrance of people, family and friends who are no longer living.

The Machine Revolution

It was more than 50 years ago that I first realized that machines were going to take over the world - by which I mean that almost all the jobs that humans do would soon be done by machines.

I formed that opinion because as a mathematician I understood that a lot of our most difficult intellectual tasks could readily be accomplished by computers.  Sure enough, for example, a computer became the world's best chess player.

But what really brought the revolution home recently was the understanding that machines were "driving" cars on the roads of the U.S., that is to say, there are driverless cars (put there by Google) in operation today, even as I write this.  Wow!

If you browse around the internet a bit, you'll soon discover a marvelous world of robots, drones, automata, and other ilk of truly wonderful machines.  It is no exaggeration to say that machines are capable of doing virtually anything that humans now do.

I think I'll save the implications of the machine revolution for a later post.  Meanwhile, you think about it.

Security hawks

The United States overreacted to 9/11.  We federalized the TSA, established the Department of Homeland Security, and diverted federal law enforcement assets to anti-terrorist duties.  Public buildings which used to be freely accessible to the public they serve are now surrounded by barriers and screening detectors.

Of course any security agency can be counted on to tell you that you need to pay more attention (and devote more assets) to security.  If you follow their recommendations slavishly, soon security will be the biggest chunk of the discretionary budget.

Al Qaeda wanted to disrupt our economy on 9/11.  They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, chiefly because we shifted assets that should have been used for economic growth to security activities.  We should have said, "We'll carry on as usual and not let some crazed terrorists disrupt our excellent society and our excellent economy and our excellent trust of our citizenry."

We need to reclaim our country from the security hawks, who would continue to increase our country's expenditure on security, and continue to erode our fundamental freedom.

Half mast

The American flag is frequently flown at half mast from certain public buildings.  This is clearly done to express official observance of an individual or event.  Why should this observance be kept secret from the public?  Effectively it is - have you ever asked, "Why is the flag at half mast?" and received an unsatisfactory reply?  And what of those who are curious but don't know who to ask?

I have no immediate solution to offer, but it seems to me the lack of public awareness when a flag is flown at half mast symbolizes the weakness of the interaction between government and the people.

Introduction

I've tried blogging before; perhaps I'll be more successful this time.

I'm getting to an age at which I think I've learned a lot (actually, I've reached such a point before) and at which I think I really must leave a record of some of my thoughts.

Some of the posts will deal with what we humans are doing and how we might do it better.  These are thoughts I've had for years, and the telling of them seems to me more important than ever.

Some of the posts will be much more evanescent, derived from my jottings in a pocket notebook as my wife Elsa and I wander about the U.S. and elsewhere.

I intend for all of the posts to be short.