The Holiday Weekend

I just ran through today's Chron for inspiration for this posting. Not much cheery to be found, and I had a rough day so cheery is in order. Consequently, we'll go free-form.

Would you agree that this July holiday is becoming more of a family holiday? SFO last night was full of siblings and cousins holding welcoming signs, kids reaching to hug parents (my case), and vice versa. The resemblance made it impossible to mistake the connections as anything but familial. Today at work, people were preparing for daughters and dads to arrive. Elevators carried snippets of family picnic plans. Maybe we're all visiting the relatives because it can be less expensive. Or easier to justify that trip to glorious SF, leaving Dubuque behind for a few days. As in: it's a bit of splurge but you have to check in with the [relative category here] every once in a while or be ostracized. Whatever the reason, it presents opportunity.

While we're all together, let's talk. Ask about the mood back home. What's the energy level downtown and in the malls? Are their mayors and city council members making good on their election promises? Has anyone ever been asked to participate in those surveys always being reported in the papers? Who turns up for local commission meetings, or the PTA these days? Really ask. If there are stories to be told, really listen. Ask for details. If there are no stories, ask the table what keeps everyone from getting involved. We know it isn't because everything is cheery. Really ask, and really listen. Edge the conversation toward what might be done. Nothing major. Make mental notes of what people say they would like to do, and even might do, whatever it is, to be more involved in the community. Afterward, but before you forget, make notes on the November calendar page of what you heard. It will make for great table topics at Thanksgiving when we're all together again. You know. Follow up. Show you really listened, and want to really ask and really listen again. I'll bet the thread of conversation becomes contagious. And I'll bet it leads incrementally to more personal contribution to what is important to you and yours. That's progress. That's cheery! LLII

More buzz about Prop 13

As Californians waited and watched during the excruciating budget battle this year, more and more people are beginning to agree we have to look at Prop 13 again. The long-ago decision to cap property taxes and to demand a 2/3 vote to approve budget decisions has made California a failed state. Many citizens do not understand how the budget is arrived at and they continue to demand services without approving any move to raise money for them. We can't keep on getting a free lunch forever. No other state in the country has passed legislation that puts the government in such a bind as California's. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass speaks for many legislators when she says its time to put everything on the table. Next month's Tax Commission Report should give some indication of what the possibilities are. Let's calm down, take a look at the possibilities and make some sensible, grown-up decision about how the state will continue to function.

Good idea for nonprofits

With both city and state facing budget deficits, you'd think San Francisco could get its act together and make more responsible decisions about funding the city's nonprofit social agencies. But as columnist C.W. Nevius points out in the S.F. Chronicle, funding really depends on how effectively the nonprofits reps can beg from the supervisors and how much political clout they have. Is this any way to run a city? The political atmosphere of the funding leads to a duplication of efforts in some areas and a lack of them in others. It punishes responsible nonprofits which meet their goals and favors other that consistently fail in the tasks they take on. We can do better than that. As Nevius points out, improved accounting methods would make it possible to compare the records of nonprofits and target funding toward the ones which actually do what they promise. With so many new college graduates searching for jobs today, surely the city could set up an intern program to help nonprofits with their accounting. That would help build the students' resumes and help save the taxpayers money--not to mention providing better services for the needy.

Last chance for budget?

State legislators will vote this week on competing plans to "fix" California's budget problems. The S.F.Chronicle offers readers a handy chart comparing the two packages. The problem is that neither plan grapples with the measures needed to fix the budget permanently. Both of them push some expenses off into the future and make overly-optimistic predictions of how much money will be saved. The L.A. Times notes that Democrat's plan goes so far as to suggest paying state employees their June salaries just after midnight on July 1 so the expense is pushed into the next budget year. That's the old let's-pay-the-holiday-bills-in-January ploy that many households have tried only to find the bills are just as painful in the new year. To vote either one of these packages into law in time to save us from running out of money on July 1 will require a two-thirds majority. When are our representatives going to settle down and act like grown-ups?

Civilized, dignified healthcare may still be ours! (Action still required.)

It's been a dispiriting period for everyone who will ever need health care without the benefit of employer-provided insurance (that would be most of us), but the trajectory may reversing. We start from a low point: California's universal healthcare bill, SB810, was shelved due to fiscal worries. Of all things. Containing medical expense with preventive care and early treatment is part of a solution to individual, corporate, and government fiscal worries. Then, Congress said no, flat out, to single payer healthcare. Insurance companies protested they couldn't compete with a government program, and it would be socialism, too. Hmmmmmm. People agitated heartily, and Senator Baucus opened the door to at least considering single payer. The rhetoric intensified. I woke up earlier this week to NPR's Steve Inskeep badgering HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to assure us there would be no single payer system . The Secretary obliged; he crowed. (Tell us what you really think, Mr. Inskeep. Now we understand why NPR describes you as a "personality" rather than a journalist.) It was depressing and distressing. But wait! Late in the week Senator Dodd, speaking for Senator Kennedy, called his colleagues to task for plans that would still leave millions without any health insurance, and would leave preventive or early treatment our out-of-pocket costs. There was a pause in the rush to publish something, anything, rather than a responsive, responsible proposal. Now, today. The NYT published a survey showing 72% of respondents back a public health care option. 64% of persons earning less than $50,000 (these are people with very little discretionary money, really) would be willing to pay higher taxes for universal health insurance. And, today, the Times ran a thoughtful editorial in full support of a public health insurance option, compared to the alternatives. I'm encouraged. But this is a fragile recovery. Let's keep speaking out for better, meaningful access to healthcare. Our voices make a difference. And our lives depend on it. (League Lady II)

On the street in San Francisco

On this pleasant Sunday when many of us are at home celebrating Father's Day with the family, it's particularly painful to think about people who not only have no family but don't even have a home. The S.F. Chronicle book review today calls attention to Righteous Dopefiend an important book of words and pictures by Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg. The authors tell the stories of addicts who are chronically homeless, who struggle to overcome addiction and find satisfying lives, but most of whom continue to fall back into homelessness and despair. More information about the book is given in a longer, academic review that quotes several sources commenting on the searing portrait of men and women and how their lives are affected by our failing drug laws. Despite Mayor Newsom's laudable efforts to find housing for the homeless, much more is needed. During economic hard times let's not forget others who are suffering much more than we are.

How can I possibly understand the crisis?

As we try to follow news about the financial crisis that's hit us all, most of us wonder what's meant by all the jargon tossed about by reporters and commentators. Many people who are not trained in economics have had to try to learn a lot of terms very quickly and many of us have failed. At last we have a helpful source online. It's called the Financial Crisis for Beginners and it's part of a blog written for the general public by experts in the financial field. The blog itself, called The Baseline Scenario, provides frequent updates of what's going on in the world of finance. The authors also write articles for the New York Times and the Atlantic, which can be located through the blog. Not all of it is easy reading, but the writing is clear and the subject is important. It's worth spending some time trying to understand what's going on. It may not make you feel better, but at least you'll feel a little less confused and helpless in the face of all the changes we've seen.