The problem we all live with

The Problem We All Live With is a 1964 painting by Norman Rockwell that appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post. It depicts Ruby Bridges, a six year old African American girl on her way to William Frantz Elementary School, an all white school, on November 14, 1960, during the New Orleans school crisis.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Problem_We_All_Live_With

Although her walk to school occurred more than six years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case was decided, colored people in America still suffered harsh discrimination. Separate bathrooms and water fountains still were common in 1960, and lunch counters were segregated until the Greensboro lunch counter sit-in was held from February 1, 1960 until July 25 of the same year. The Freedom Riders did not start their protests until 1961. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed on July 2, nearly a year after Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi. However, the passage of the Civil Rights Act still did not allow colored people to vote. The march from Selma, Alabama in 1965 finally brought about the passage of the Voting Rights Act on

August 6, 1965.

 

As of today, 32 states have voter ID laws, which are nothing more than thinly veiled attempts to discourage voting by minorities, who tend to vote for Democrats. 7 of those states now require a photo ID in order to vote. The excuse for these laws is to reduce voter fraud, which is virtually non-existent in this country.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/03/us/elections/how-states-moved-toward-stricter-voter-id-laws.html

 

The editorial cartoon shown above was published by Steve Benson of the Arizona Republic yesterday. The black girl has been replaced by a young Central American refuge, and the U.S. Marshalls have been replaced by embers of Homeland Security, but the message is still the same.

 

The majority of the people in the current wave of asylum seekers come from the Central American countries of Guatamala, Honduras, and El Salvador, which are among the most violent countries on the face of the Earth. What many of the conservatives in this country fail to understand is that people who are seeking asylum are NOT illegal immigrants, but simply people who are seeking asylum, which is NOT illegal. One of the asylum seekers is a woman from Guatamala, who is suing the Trump administration for taking her 7 year old son from her as she crossed the border. Not only was she escaping the general violence in Guatamala itself, she was also escaping from an abusive husband who was threatening to kill her and their son.

The current inhumane practice of separating parents from their children was instituted on April 1. Although it was announced by Jeff Sessions, it was actually the brainchild of senior advisor Stephen Miller, who also wrote Trump’s dystopian inauguration speech, as well as Trump’s Muslim bans.

 

 

The vast majority of the people in this country, on both sides of the aisle, recognize that the current process of separating parents from their children is inhumane, and should be stopped immediately. However, as Laurie Roberts pointed out in today’s column, there are a surprising number of people who fully support Trump’s policy. In view of the fact that 62 million people voted for a man who every major newspaper in the country said was unfit for office, perhaps that should not be e surprise after all.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2018/06/19/zero-tolerance-immigrant-children-torn-their-parents-families-separated/712779002/

 

Ironically, January 20 is World Refuge Day, which was created by the United Nations on December 4, 2000, and effective June 17, 2001, which happened to be the 50^th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. Ultimately, the date was changed to June20 in order to coincide with Africa Refuge Day, which was celebrated on June 20.

 

Although Pope Francis has long been a supporter of refuges (and gotten criticism for it) the Roman Catholic Church, under Pius X, instituted the World Day of Migrants and Refugees in 1914.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-cardinal-burke-minister-salvini-and-the-plot-to-take-down-pope-francis

 

The advantage of having a free press is that the glare of publicity can sometimes reverse policies that are clearly not in the public’s interest. The New York Times recently interviewed Stephen Miller, but did not air the interview at the request of the White House. Then, earlier today, Trump signed an executive order halting the administration’s policy of separating migrant families detained at the border because “I didn’t like the sight of it”.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nyt-we-pulled-stephen-miller-interview-at-whs-request

 

No shit, Donald. Neither did we.

 

The problem that we all live with, of course, is political.  However, starting in November of this year, the voters of this country can start to solve the problem by electing the right people to positions of power in this country. It may take until 2020, but the excesses of the most corrupt administration in our country’s history will eventually catch up to Donald Trump, and he will no longer be in power.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqsT4xnKZPg

the word is Om

I won’t tell you who the young woman in the picture is, but I WILL tell you that I have known her for a very long time, and she is a truly remarkable person.


Every time that I view this picture, the first thing that comes to mind is a song that I first heard almost exactly 50 years ago. “Om” is the last track on the third album released by the Moody Blues. The album, “In Search Of The Lost Chord”, was released by the group in July of 1968.  

Have a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGwcEUp4BFk 

Although the group started out playing rhythm and blues, they quickly branched out into a variety of rock variations. Their second album, "Days of Future Passed", was a blend of rock and classical music. “In Search of The Lost Chord” is most accurately described as “psychedelic rock”. When you listen to the song shown below, you will understand why.

 https://youtu.be/6EXCIWlm1fs

The promotional video that you see above was shot at Groot-Bijaarden Castle near Brussels, Belgium, an edifice that dates back to 12^th century. 

4 members of the group took LSD together early in 1967, and it is entirely possible that they may have known Timothy Leary personally. To use the terminology of the 1960’s, Leary was “far out”, an adjective that is further heightened by the fact that his ashes (and Gene Rodenberry’s) were shot into space after his death in 1997. If you are a “trekkie”, you may remember that Rodenberry created the Star Trek television series in 1966. 

The Moody Blues” was FINALLY inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April of 1968. Sadly, founding member Ray Thomas was not there to enjoy the honor, due to the fact that he passed away from prostrate cancer on January 4, 2018. 

Like many of the musical groups that I grew up listening to, the Moody Blues has had remarkable staying power. Except for a brief hiatus in the 1970’s, they have been performing together since 1964, and they will be playing in Las Vegas until October 6, 2018.  

In today’s world, we are constantly inundated with a lot of noisy nonsense. For the sake of your mental health, turn off the TV, stare at the picture at the top of the page, and play a little bit of the magic produced by an aging rock group a long time ago. 

You’ll feel a lot better. 

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moody_Blues

 

 

 

I've got you, babe

Due to the rush of our daily activities, most of us missed the fact that one of our favorite performers just had a birthday not long ago. 

Cherilyn Sarkisian Bono Allman was born on May 20, 1946, which makes her 72 years old.

She first burst onto to the music scene in 1965, when she teamed up with Sonny Bono to form the duo known as “Sonny and Cher”. Right out of the box, their song, “”I’ve got you, babe” reached number one on the American and British charts. By the end of 1967, they had sold 40 million records worldwide, and became Time magazine’s “it” couple. Even before she married Sonny in 1969, she also embarked on a solo career in 1966, and in 1970, she started The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynrdkkUxp3E 

After divorcing Sonny in 1975, she started performing in Las Vegas (in 1980), and she moved to Broadway in 1982. She started acting in films in 1983, when she debuted in “Silkwood” in 1983. “Mask” followed in 1985, and was followed by “Moonstruck”, for which she earned an Academy Award for Best Actress.

She continued to release records, , and she also continued to tour. Her 2002-2006 "Living Proof: The Farewell Tour” became one of the highest grossing tours of all time, earning $250 million. In 2008, she signed a three year deal with Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas for $180 million, but she is not slowing down anytime soon. 

Later on this year, she will be performing in the film, “Mama Mia! Here We Go Again”, and she will also be traveling to Australia for another concert tour.  

In her career, Cher has won a Grammy, an Emmy, an academy Award, three Golden Globes, a Cannes Film Festival Award, and a special CFDA Fashion Award. 

Sharon and I saw Cher in concert once in Chicago, and the show was definitely worth the $75 admission price. It was almost worth that much just to see the costume changes, which occurred rapidly and frequently . 

Cher is another one of those classic “rags’ to riches” stories. 

Her father was an Armenian-American truck driver with drug and gambling

problems, and her mother was a was an occasional model and actress. Her father wasn’t around much when she was an infant, and her parents divorced when she was 10 months old. 

Her dad’s side of the family has a fair amount of gypsy blood, and her mother’s side was English, German, and Cherokee. For that reason, she has a strong personal connection to “gypsies, tramps, and thieves” and “half breed” . 

Just for fun, let’s listen to both of them again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG0C54J1qsQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6E98ZRaU1s

 

Happy birthday, Cher, and may you have a lot more of them in the future !

suicide is painless

M*A*S*H, the television series, was based on the 1970 movie with the same title, which was based on the 1968 novel, titled MASH. The television series premiered on September 17, 1972, and the final 2.5 hour episode (titled “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen”) aired on February 28, 1983. The viewing audience was 125 million people, which broke the record for the highest percentage of homes with televisions for a television series. The show adopted its theme song, “suicide is painless” from M*A*S*H, the movie, which used the same theme song.

https://youtu.be/whhAg6bA3_o  

To be honest, I don’t think of the suicide issue very frequently, but it’s popped up on three separate occasions in recent weeks. My first real exposure to the issue happened in 2005, when one of my MetLife clients took his own life. At the appropriate time, I will tell you more about “Dan’s story”.

My first exposure in the recent past occurred just a few weeks ago, when I finished reading Jodi Picoult’s novel, “The Pact’. It’s a story about an intelligent 17 year old girl who decided to end her life, and she asked her long time boy friend (and neighbor) to assist her. Like virtually all Picoult’s novels, it was very thought provoking, but the subject matter made it a difficult book to work through.

The second reference to suicide was a recent column by a local columnist, named Linda Valdez, which you can read at the link posted below:

https://azc.cc/2LHSXZX

The title, “let old – not just terminally ill – folks decide when they die” will give you a good idea about some of her thoughts.

The third reference to suicide happened today, June 1, when Brittany Maynard’s husband, Daniel Diaz, was on Megyn Kelly’s show. The link below tells you more about her, but the short story is that she developed astrocytoma, a rare form of brain cancer, when she was 29 years old. At the time of her diagnosis, she had been married for roughly 14 months. Although she still had some good days after her diagnosis, she had many more days filled with pain and reduced communication skills. Since there is no cure for her disease, her choices were either a long and painful death, or a quick and pain free death. Since assisted suicide was illegal in California at the time, she moved to Oregon, and her life ended peacefully on November 2, 2014.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittany_Maynard

At the time of her death, only 3 states had death-with-dignity laws. As of today, that number has increased to 6, but will become 7 when Hawaii’s law becomes effective on January 1, 2019.

The average number of suicides each year in America is 44,965, or an average of 123 per day. 7 out of 10 suicides are middle aged white men, and the “method of choice” was firearms, which caused 51% of the deaths. Montana has the highest number of suicides, but is closely followed by Alaska. Not surprisingly, the states that have the toughest gun laws also have the lowest number of suicides

https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/

 I plan to live to be 100 years old, or darn close to it, so there is little chance that I am going to “off” myself at some point in the future. However, due to the wide variety of problems facing people who ultimately decide to “check out” a little early, I am not about to question their motives, since none of us will ever know what led them to make a very difficult decision.

I will admit, though, that Dan’s suicide made me mad, and here’s why: 

**********************************************

 Dan’s story 

The note in yesterday’s e-mail hit like a ton or bricks.

A guy named Bob, whom I have never met, sent me a note about Dan, who
was his neighbor and friend, as well as my client (at MetLife) and
friend. The note mentioned that Dan had passed away on Wednesday,
August 3, and the wake was today (August 5) in Oakbrook Terrace, a
western suburb of Chicago.

Dan and his wife Mary had purchased several products from me when I was
at MetLife, and Dan has been trying to buy a VW Passat from me for
months, but his wife is still a little nervous about spending the extra
money, even though they are well off financially. We’ve talked together
on the phone on a pretty regular basis, and I was a frequent recipient
of his email literature, some of which I passed on to some of MY
regular email correspondents.

Since Dan really was a hell of a guy, and I considered him a friend, I
decided to take a few hours off from work to attend his wake. Although
Chicago traffic on a Friday afternoon can really get brutal, my
three-hour round trip actually could have been a lot worse.

After I got to the wake, his younger daughter quickly advised me that
her dad had taken his own life, which brought a little misting to my
eyes, and an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach. Dan had
been plagued with a variety of medical problems for a number of years,
which had forced an early retirement several years ago. Had he lived to
be 80 or so, he would have won the "curmudgeon" award from whatever
nursing home he wound up in, but he still was an enjoyable guy in spite
of his characteristic bluntness.

Dan’s frustration with his medical problems certainly are
understandable, but the thoughts that kept coming back to me on the
drive back to Evanston are that neither one of his daughters (they are
roughly 18 and 20) will ever have the opportunity to walk them down the
aisle with their dad on their wedding day, or have him play the role of
grandpa to their children, or have him watch them enter the world as
new college graduates (the eldest daughter just finished her second
year at Northwestern, and will be attending a semester of college in
Dublin next fall).

I’ve offered to help his wife a little bit with the MetLife stuff after
the dust settles a little, but hopefully (and more importantly) I can
offer her a few kind words to ease her pain.

The lesson that all of us can learn from Dan is that even if our
troubles at times seem overwhelming , ALL of us have a vast network of
family and friends that can help us get through. I’ve had more than my
share of bad situations in recent years, but my Irish stubborness (and
a few trusted confidantes) has helped me to overcome some pretty
daunting challenges.

I’ll hoist a glass of Guinness in Dan’s honor as often as I can, but
I’ll always remember him as a friend who’s time came sooner than it
should have, and it may take me a while to work that anger out of my
system.

My closing thought (and advice) is this:

If things look dark and dreary, NEVER give up the ship. Help can always
arrive when you least expect it, AND from unexpected sources.

**************************************************

In the final analysis, of course, suicide is NOT painless. Although it may finally bring permanent relief to the person committing the act, nearly all of those people leave behind friends and relatives, who will be forever tormented by the fact that maybe, just maybe, they could have done SOMETHING to help, but were unable to. As a society , we should also be troubled by the fact that an average of 20 veterans kill themselves every day, and spending $30 million spent on a military parade is money that could have been better used to provide preventive measures for them.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhla_y0Jdfg

miracle on ice

Way back in 1980, the United States hockey team, coached by Herb Brooks, defeated a vastly superior Russian hockey team to win the Olympic gold medal.

For those who don’t think that history repeats itself, consider this:

The Las Vegas Golden Knights started their INAUGURAL season about a year ago. As you are aware, finding a hockey team in the desert of Las Vegas is about as logical as winning the lottery – but it actually happened.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegas_Golden_Knights

We are currently in the middle of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and there are just TWO teams remaining – the Washington Capitals, and the Nevada Golden Knights. So far, the Knights are leading the series, and the 2^nd game is tonight.

Since the start of professional hockey, no team has won the Stanley Cup in its very first season, The MOST successful teams in the NHL are the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leaf, which have won 3374 and 2883 games, respectively . So far, the Canadiens have won 24 Stanley Cups, more than any other team. Its first championship was in 1915, 6 years after the team’s founding.

The Maple Leafs were founded in 1917, and have won 13 Stanley Cups. The first one was in 1932, 15 years after the club’s founding

  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_all-time_NHL_standings

Can the Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup in their first season? 

To paraphrase Peter Pam, if you believe in miracles, clap your hands.

A beautiful mind

Last Friday, I monitored an honors psych class at a local high school. The assignment for the day was to watch “A beautiful mind”, the award winning 2001 film. It’s a great film, which is why it earned 4 Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress).

At the end of class, I did a little research on John Nash, and discovered that this week (on May 23) is the 3^rd anniversary of his death in a car crash. Ironically, he and his wife were returning from Norway, where he had just been awarded the Abel Prize (which is modeled after the Nobel Prize) which is given to outstanding mathematicians. The taxi driver lost control of his vehicle on the New Jersey turnpike, and both he and his wife were thrown from the car and killed. He was 86 years old.

As his bio explains, he made fundamental contributions to game theory, differential geometry, and the study of partial differential equations. The four theories that he is known for are listed below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_embedding_theorem

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_functions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash%E2%80%93Moser_theorem

Researchers have discovered that people with high IQs have a lower risk of schizophrenia, but Nash (and his son) were exceptions to the rule, since both of them developed schizophrenia.

Unless you are a scientist, the terms shown above won’t make a lot of sense to you, but the link below does a better job of explain both game theory and the Nash equilibrium:

https://mashable.com/2015/05/25/john-nash-mathematics-contribution/#UkUmcDucxmq0

  

Because of John Nash, game theory now has wide-ranging applications to everything from business, law and finance to agriculture, war and, most important for Nash, economics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash_Jr.

John Nash isn’t the smartest person who ever lived, but if you scroll through the list below, you will discover that he is number 180 on the list, with an IQ (coincidentally) of 180. Albert Einstein is number 3 on the list with an IQ of 215.

https://www.geni.com/projects/Famous-Historical-Genius-IQs/35523

I wouldn’t recommend spending a lot of time reading the entire list, since there are 633 people on it, but you may find the following people to be of interest (their place on the list is next to their name):

Leonardo DaVinci – 7

Galileo – 12

Shakespeare – 43

Thomas Edison – 54

Pavlov – 146

Mark Twain – 361

Steve Jobs – 437

FDT – 529

JFK – 532

Muhammad Ali (“I am the greatest”) – 541

Walt Disney – 618

Martin Luther King – 620

Being highly intelligent does not guarantee that you will be a success in life, nor does having a low IQ condemn you to a life of failure (Forrest Gump had an IQ of 75).

None of us is as smart as John Nash, or even most of the people on the list. However, if we simply try to do our best at whatever we do, we too will be a success in life.

I am the greatest

If you are one of those people who feel compelled to put your thoughts down on paper (like I do) there are no shortage of sources to draw ideas from.

Since I started publishing online about years ago, I have produced just under 400 separate articles, which cover 62 different topics. To date, I’ve had just under 250,000 “hits” on those articles at various places around the world, and I’ve been read in something like 100 countries, some of which I have never heard from. After the United States, the 2^nd most common place my writings have been in is Russia. More than likely, some of my thoughts have been read by employees of the Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-backed troll farm that placed fake Facebook ads during the 2016 election campaign.

Yesterday, I monitored an English class at a local high school, and wound up playing the YouTube video of Oprah Winfrey’s visit to Auschwitz with Elie Weisel in 2006. It’s a very powerful film, and it almost inspired me to write about it. However, since I viewed it on the same day as the United States dedicated its new (and ill-advised) new embassy in Jerusalem, I decided that I had had enough bad news for the day.

The idea from the title shown above came to me in a dream, and it wasn’t the first time that I have gotten ideas that way.

When I was still in high school, a brash young man names Cassius Clay became the WBA, WBC, and lineal heavyweight championships at the tender age of 22. He loudly proclaimed “I am the greatest”, and he BRIEFLY had the admiration of a large number of people.

Not long after winning his championship, he converted to Islam, and changed his named to Muhammad Ali, which infuriated a bunch of his fans. Two years later, he refused induction into the U.S. military, which caused him to be stripped of his titles for 5 years, at which time his titles were reinstated by the Supreme Court.

Ali was one of the leading 20^th century boxers, and remains the ONLY three time lineal heavyweight champion. After his retirement at the age of 39, Ali focused on religion and charity, and eventually helped feed more than 22,000,000 people affected by hunger.

If we expand beyond Muhammad Ali, what exactly DOES make a person the greatest?

Scholars still debate whether Michael Jordan or Lebron James is the greatest basketball player, or whether Tiger Woods is still the greatest golfer, or Abe Lincoln is still the best president.

Not all “the great ones” are as bodacious as Ali was, but people that are “the greatest” share two qualities.

(1)          They are confident

(2)         They are persistent

Cassius Clay started boxing at the age of 12, and won an Olympic gold medal when he was only 18 years old. During his boxing career, he beat 21 boxers for the world heavyweight title, and is the only boxer to be named fighter of the year six times by Ring magazine.

Michael Jordan tried out for the varsity team when he was a sophomore in high school, but was cut from the team. Determined to prove his worth, Jordan trained vigorously, and became the star of the junior varsity tram.  The following hear, he made the varsity team. When he was a senior, he was selected to the McDonald’s All-American Team. In college, he selected to the NCAA All-American First team, and was drafter by the NBA before he graduated. Eventually, he led the Chicago Bulls to six national championships. In his retirement years, he became the first former player to become the majority owner of an NBA team, the Charlotte Bobcats. Despite the team’s dismal record, its ownership (along with his lucrative sponsorships) allowed Jordan to become the first former athlete to become a billionaire. As of March, 2018, his net wroth is $1.65 billion.

Tiger Woods started playing golf before he was 2 years old, and played against Bob Hope in a television show when he was 3. Starting in 1988, when he was 13, he won the Junior World Golf Championships, which he went on to win 5 more times. At the age of 15, he became the youngest winner ever of the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship. At the age of 19, he became the youngest ever U.S. Amateur, and a year later, he turned pro. At the age of 21, he became the youngest ever winner of the Masters at Augusta, Georgia.

His awards and records are almost too numerous to mention, but they are all listed in the link shown below. He is also the 2^nd person known to walk on water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ1st1Vw2kY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Woods

Despite personal and physical setbacks, Tiger Woods is still competing today, and he has an accumulated net worth of $740 million.

Abe Lincoln is consistently ranked the best president America has ever had, but he had NUMEROUS setbacks before he was elected president in 1860, including being defeated for public office on six different occasions.

https://www.school-for-champions.com/history/lincoln_failures.htm#.Wvs6IManHcs

We’re all good at some things, and terrible at other things, but all of us are capable of greatness if we set our minds to it. If you have any doubts at all about that, consider the story of J.K. Rowling, whose story is listed below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling

Before her first Harry Potter book was published, she was a single mom living on state benefits. With the success of the Harry Potter series, she became the first writer in history to become a billionaire. Even though she has given enough of her fortune away to charity to lose her billionaire status, she is STILL worth 600 million British Pounds, (about $800 million U.S.)

Remember- YOU are the greatest, which is why YOU were Time magazines person of the year in 2006.