Hypocrisy aplenty

If a Republican occupied the White House, wouldn’t Republicans feel it is appropriate for the president to nominate a Supreme Court justice? Wouldn’t Democrats believe it would be fairer to wait for a new president to nominate a justice? It seems there’s plenty of hypocrisy on both sides right now!

Let President Obama do his job and nominate the next justice. Hopefully, his pick will be a person that senators from both parties can be open-minded to accepting or rejecting based on his or her qualifications.

I’m sure most Americans believe the US still has the best form of government in the world. But, a growing number of people feel our political system, as we’re continuing to learn during this presidential campaign, is in need of major improvement.

Would limiting presidents to one six-year term be a step in the right direction? How about electing senators every four years, and limiting senators and House representatives to 20 years in Congress? And, would limiting Supreme Court justices to 20 years of service be a good idea?

Shouldn’t both Republicans and Democrats want to work together on legally viable campaign reform that would reduce the need to raise and spend more money every election? Don’t both parties want to put their heads together on improving a presidential campaign system in which only a few voters from a handful of states largely determine the major candidates?

I would hope so!

Improving our political system so that the government can function to its fullest in the best interests of our country can be done — and will be done, hopefully soon. Putting hypocritical rhetoric about the nomination of the next Supreme Court justice aside would be a good start this week.

(Image from www.smithsonianmag.com)

Carly Simon and Patti Smith: So different, yet similar

They were born only 18 months and five days apart, one in the biggest city in the U.S., the other in the second largest at the time.  But, the differences between Carly Simon and Patti Smith have always seemed so significant, they might as well have arrived on the popular music scene decades and continents apart.

Yet, their similarities, as revealed in their recent best-selling, critically acclaimed autobiographies, are surprisingly as significant.

Carly Simon was born to a wealthy family and had a privileged life growing up in the New York City area.  Her parents hosted the rich and famous in their home, often getting away to their mansion in Connecticut and, each summer, vacationing in Martha's Vineyard.

Patti Smith grew up in a working class family in a modest New Jersey suburb of Philadelphia.

Carly graduated from a private girls high school in Westchester County and went on to Sarah Lawrence College.  She dropped out after one semester in order to concentrate on her music career as one-half of the Simon Sisters.

After Patti graduated from her local public high school, she went to work at a toy factory.

After a few twists and turns, however, their different paths began converging in New York City by the time they were in their early 20s.  Carly found fame as a solo singer in 1971 with her song, "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be."  She had a succession of hit singles and albums over the next several years.

Just as Carly's fame was peaking in 1975, Patti released her first album, Horses.  The differences between their music could not be more pronounced.  Yet, at least one New York radio station, WNEW-FM, saw nothing strange about playing songs from both of their new albums.

After reading Boys in the Trees, Carly Simon's 2015 book about the first three decades of her life, and M Train (2015) and Just Kids (2010), Patti Smith's books recalling events in her life, it's startling to learn how similar many of their experiences have been.

They both worked hard to achieve their success.  Despite her background, the music business gave little to Carly.  She earned her fame with determination, using her singing voice to deal with a stutter that for years undermined her self-confidence.  She also overcame stage fright, triggered by depression and anxiety, to bring her recordings to the attention of more people.

In spite of her humble origins and need to constantly work odd jobs to support herself, Patti found her muse and would not let it go.  She wrote constantly and, eventually, found the right kind of sound to accompany her words.  She sought opportunities to showcase her talent and, when they came, vocalized her poetry in a unique way that caught on with an increasing number of people.

And then there were the men in their lives.

For Carly, the main man was James Taylor, of course.  Both of them already successful, they married in 1972.  Even though they've been divorced for over 30 years, he remains the most significant lover of her life.  But, certainly not her only.

In her autobiography, Carly sheds a lot of light on many other men.  But, she's holding on to some secrets.  Following is her explanation of "You're So Vain," her 1973 hit:

And no, the song is not just about one person. Let’s just say Warren Beatty played second base in this particular infield, which he knows so well, but as for who manned first and third–ask the shortstop. In all seriousness, the subjects of the first and third verses don’t know that this song is also about them, so it would be inappropriate and a rude awakening to disclose their identities until they, them (vain) selves, were notified.

For Patti, the main men were Robert Mapplethorpe and Fred "Sonic" Smith.  She devoted Just Kids to chronicling her relationship with Mapplethorpe, an artistic photographer she befriended shortly after arriving in New York City.  They remained close until his death from AIDS in 1989, by which time she had been married to Fred for nine years.  Fred passed away in 1994.

Broken-hearted but far from broken, both Carly and Patti carried on with their careers and continued raising the son and daughter each of them had with their husband.  Patti reflected on this in M Train:

We want things we cannot have. We seek to reclaim a certain moment, sound, sensation. I want to hear my mother’s voice. I want to see my children as children. Hands small, feet swift. Everything changes. Boy grown, father dead, daughter taller than me, weeping from a bad dream. Please stay forever, I say to the things I know. Don’t go. Don’t grow.

Carly and Patti are both grandmothers now and sharing their life experiences with music fans, some who realize that, like many other things around the world, the similarities of people are often as significant as their differences.

Humans of New York

“She’s a life-long Jersey girl.  I’m a native New Yorker who’s lived across the Hudson River most of his life.  Our first date was an Elton John concert at Madison Square Garden.  On our second date, we just walked around midtown.  I remember buying her a hot dog from a street vendor. The meat fell out of the bun and to the ground after she bit into it, but I didn’t buy her another one.  She still liked me, though, and we got married five years later.”

Inspired by by Brandon Stanton, Humans of New York: Stories; 2015

The Voice

Frank Sinatra meant little to me for almost 40 years. His sound was not what I liked hearing when I began listening to popular music as a young schoolboy in the 1960s. When Sinatra retired from the music business while I was a teenager, I cared as little as I did when he made his comeback a short time later. Although I initially appreciated his hit song about my favorite city as I finished college, I tired of it by the time it became associated with a baseball team whose owner I despised.

Then, many years later, an older co-worker suggested I listen to Sinatra's recordings from the 1950s. Vince, a very likable New Jersey guy, even was nice enough to lend me CDs of some of Sinatra's classic albums from that period. So, I listened to In the Wee Small Hours (1955), Songs for Swingin' Lovers (1956), Where Are You? (1957), Close to You and More (1957), A Swingin' Affair (1957), Only the Lonely (1958), No One Cares (1959), and Nice 'n' Easy (1960).

Wow. What great albums, full of first-rate songs performed to perfection! After appreciating these classic American recordings, I became a Sinatra fan. I began listening to a greatest hits collection from his Reprise Records era, an album I was given years earlier and hadn't bothered with. Sometime later, I bought a 3-CD set of songs he recorded for Capitol Records.

More recently, I've gained an appreciation for the weekend radio program on WNYC-FM of Jonathan Schwartz, a Sinatra aficionado who plays lots of rare and popular gems spanning Sinatra's entire 60-year career. Bob Dylan's album earlier this year of songs recorded by Sinatra is a favorite. I'm grateful for all the attention Sinatra's music and broader contribution to 20th century popular culture have generated as the 100th anniversary of his birthday is celebrated.  

To those who were fortunate enough to appreciate Sinatra at a young age from their family's music collection, good for you. If you weren't lucky to have a Vince help you eventually discover Sinatra's best recordings, it's not too late. One hundred years after his birth, 17 years after his passing, Sinatra's music lives on. It continues being as accessible today as it was to his fans many years ago. And, intertwined with the fabric of the great American songbook, the sound of his voice will remain around for many, many years to come.

A Christmas card

Your sentiments can be purchased from Hallmark

for $4.99 or more, 

or from another card company

for as little as 99 cents.

You can be politically correct with some people
and wish them a happy holiday,

or be forward with others

and repeat the merry Christmas mantra.

You can pay good money for the presents 

on the wish lists of family and friends,

and hope the gifts you receive are those 

on the list you thought hard about.

Is it the season 

to pick the right cards,

say the proper greetings,

to give and get the desired gifts?

Is it that time 

to make it to church,

recall fond childhood memories,

to get together with family and friends?

Is it another Christmas to celebrate 

the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem,

while trying to put aside for a while

the conflict that continues around the Holy Land?

It's Christmas around the world,

that special time of the year 

when Christians can celebrate the gift

that God gave to all who believe in salvation.

It can be all that,

or maybe little of it.

It's what you choose,

or what's expected from others.

Your sentiments can be purchased from Hallmark

for $4.99 or more, 

or from another card company

for as little as 99 cents.

Or...

In awe of big brother

My brother and his wife, both newly retired albeit at a younger than normal age, recently completed a journey that most people a third of their age would find too challenging: they walked nearly 500 miles from St. Jean Pied-du-Port in western France across northeastern Spain over a span of 35 days. That's right, they walked, carrying nothing more than a backpack with all their essentials, for five weeks.

For sure, it wasn't easy. My brother Lou began the journey with pain in his right heel. He then caught a cold. Early in the walk, he also injured an ankle and rib. After a few weeks, blisters in his feet, he found himself feeling so foul that Andrea, his wife of 35 years, suggested they consider abandoning the second half of the walk. 

Lou and Andrea had planned their "Camino de Santiago" adventure for nearly two years, and trained for it on paths around North Carolina, where they've lived for 30 years. Lou's been a lifelong walker, starting in his native New York City and then while living in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and going on to serve in the U.S. Army. Even as he became diabetic and needed frequent insulin injections to regulate his blood sugar, he picked up his pace enough to run four full marathons, including the New York City Marathon in 1991. 

Andrea has also enjoyed walking and hiking her entire life. In fact, her and Lou's paths first crossed while hiking in the Grand Canyon. Three years later, they married. After he retired from teaching and she from nursing, it was only appropriate they begin their "golden years" with the kind of walk that rarely makes it beyond the bucket lists of most hikers. 

Even with his ailments, Lou was determined to complete the walk with Andrea. Fortunately, after nearly calling it quits, he began to feel better and stayed the course.  The two of them walked triumphantly, if not a bit wearily, into Santiago de Compostela a few weeks later, and ended their stay in Spain by spending several days in both Madrid and Barcelona.

I've always been in awe of my big brother.  Lou's successful completion of his long walk with Andrea this autumn reminds me how special a person he is and how much this little brother has to look up to.

Voter apathy: a matter of communication?

Voter turnout in the New Jersey county in which I live was an all-time low this past Tuesday.  According to the Asbury Park Press, less than 21 percent of eligible voters in Monmouth County cast ballots in this week’s elections.

“Tuesday’s turnout numbers are even more dismal if you factor in the number of eligible voters who aren’t registered.  Nationally, that’s about one in three,” stated an APP editorial today. “That means about 15 percent of eligible voters bothered to cast a ballot on Tuesday.”

Granted, there were no state-wide offices or referendums on the ballot. Still, at a time when overall taxes in New Jersey are the second highest in the country, according to a nationwide survey and analysis published in the APP on October 30, and the state’s economic recovery seems to lag behind much of the country, why did so few voters bother to cast a ballot?

When New Jersey did have a state-wide office at stake in 2014, it ranked 40th in voter turnout on Election Day, with only 32.5 percent of registered voters casting ballots, according to a study released in March by Nonprofit VOTE, and reported in NJ.com. (The national rate was 37 percent.)

In years past, some experts have pointed out that being located between the New York and Philadelphia media markets has made it difficult for New Jersey residents to get news about elections in the state, thereby leading to voter apathy. I don’t buy that argument.

With the growth of social media and other on-line information sources in recent years, it’s easier than ever to quickly get news about almost anything and anybody. For those who don’t like to get their information from digital sources, there are still plenty of newspapers and radio stations around.  And, to the annoyance of many of us, telephones and postal mail are still used by candidates to disseminate their messages.  And, therein, may lie the cause of the problem.

Voter apathy in New Jersey is likely caused by the quality, not quantity, of communication about candidates and issues.  Even though some experts may claim negative advertising actually helps candidates beat their opponents, I believe what it does more than anything else is just turn people off to the whole election process itself.

Most communication around elections merely succeeds in belittling those in government or their opponents, reinforcing their general image as narcissistic liars or worse.  And, why would the average voter want much to do with that?  By the time a person reaches voting age in New Jersey and elsewhere in the country, they’ve learned to shut out political messages and not trust what candidates are saying.  This is largely true whether the communication is being received via social media, another on-line source, or more traditional mediums like television.

Obviously, the election process in New Jersey and across the U.S. needs some serious fixing if it is going to work the way it was intended: to represent the will of the majority of the people.  A good start is for candidates to improve the quality of their communication to the public. They should keep their messages simple, state them in positive terms, and demonstrate where they can make a difference.

Perhaps communication channels, especially those that profit from politicians, should be emboldened to only accept Election Day messages that help fix the problem, rather than make it worse.  Maybe, just maybe, some positive communication actions can help reverse the trend of voter apathy in the years ahead.