Author: Paul Deaton

Categories
Living in Society

Invisible Hand at Christmas

November 2023 snowfall.

Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations is a book seldom read in its entirety. Libertarians went through multiple iterations of winnowing the more than five hundred fifty pages into something more readable, something more closely matching their ideological viewpoint. One time, they serialized a right wing version in Reader’s Digest. I will never read it. I don’t know anyone who has read it, certainly not Iowa’s current crop of right-wing politicians. They may know the phrase “invisible hand” even if they don’t use it when enacting policies that make life worse for many Iowans.

The invisible hand is a metaphor for the unseen forces that move the free market economy. Ronald Reagan referred to it as the “magic of the marketplace.” With economic freedom comes prosperity they say. Only it doesn’t. This is truly magical thinking.

This week it was announced Koch Industries is buying the Iowa Fertilizer Company in Wever. This facility has been a story of money changing hands among large, wealthy entities from the gitgo. The $110 million in financial incentives from the state finally comes home to roost with a company that is so deeply embedded in Iowa Republican politics we forget to notice their presence. Is this Adam Smith’s invisible hand of the market, or just the greedy hands of industrial capitalists?

Right wingers believe in the efficacy of the people as individuals with each making their own decisions in a free market economy. This holiday season they emphasized their belief that people, as a group or social class, don’t mean much of anything to them as they work to please corporate sponsors.

Last night, Governor Kim Reynolds released her Christmas message to Iowans, which I quote in full:

“From a humble stable in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago, the world was given the greatest gift of all time, a newborn King sent to bring light to the world. 

“This Christmas season, the part of the world where Jesus was born is impacted by war. And yet, his promise of peace is everlasting. 

“As we gather to celebrate this joyous holiday with family and friends, let us be reminded of the many blessings that we enjoy as a free people and the responsibility we have to each other as children of God. 

“On Christmas and always, may we be the light in the darkness.  

“Kevin and I, and our family, wish you and yours a Christmas filled with joy and light. 

“God bless you and Merry Christmas.” 

Office of the Governor Press Release, Dec. 22, 2023.

Let this sink in: “Let us be reminded of … the responsibility we have to each other as children of God.”

That is, unless one is poor and can’t afford health insurance. By privatizing Medicaid, the state created an expensive, inefficient process that denies care to some who need it. In that case forget about our shared responsibility to provide needed health care.

That is, unless one is a child who qualifies for the free lunch program where Governor Reynolds on Friday rejected available federal funds to pay for a summertime EBT card for hungry children. In that case, you can go hungry, and by the way, she said, you need to go on a diet because you kids are obese.

That is, unless one lives in our substandard nursing homes where the state is as much as 41 months behind in conducting annual inspections in violation of federal regulations. In that case you can just drop dead.

Where is the idea of Christian charity to bind us together in meeting common needs? Where is the invisible hand to lift up the poor and provide adequate opportunity to achieve minimum financial needs? I submit it is busy in the pockets of the wealthy, delivering government benefits that frame their success, of a kind the poor will never see.

This Christmas season we must vow to change how we treat the poor with our votes… in 2024 and beyond. Republican politicians are not listening. Voting them out of office is the only thing they might understand.

Categories
Writing

Daily Outline (Revised)

Got out my Kenmore drip coffee maker and the brew is noticeably better.

47°F at winter solstice last night in Iowa. That’s very warm for the beginning of winter. Rain is forecast most of today so I began indoors exercises to compensate for not getting out on the trail: dumbbells, walking in place, calisthenics. Today, I need to revise the daily outline that drives my morning.

By daily outline I mean the 8-1/2 x 11 inch piece of paper on a clipboard next to my writing table. It contains the sequence of events for most days. It occurred to me, after reading how other writers work, that I should clear clutter from early morning activities and write while still rested. Revision of the outline was needed and straight forward.

There is getting up, which includes taking blood pressure, stepping on a scale, dressing, making coffee and taking my morning vitamins. Checking my mobile device is in there, yet I want to delay that until after a couple of things.

First is reading 25 pages or more each day. I take my coffee to the living room, grab a blanket from the rocking chair, and settle down with coffee to read. I am a slow reader, yet I want to get this done before the day gets away from me. Sometimes, if I can’t sleep, I’ll read in bed although that is never the plan. Depending on my level of interest in the current book, this takes about an hour.

Second, the big change is to record progress in Goodreads, refill my coffee, and walk immediately downstairs for a writing session. How long that will last depends on the day and what inspiration might be present.

The change is also delaying time with my social media, reading the newspaper, reviewing banking, paying bills, eating breakfast, exercise, and other daily chores until reading and writing are finished. I’m hoping this will provide a clearer mind and better focus on writing. Also, I hope to get more writing done.

I printed the new form. The new daily outline begins tomorrow.

Our holiday season begins Dec. 18 with our wedding anniversary and continues until January. I hope to plan a lot during this time. The daily outline, one more small thing, is done.

Categories
Writing

End of Year Holidays

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

On the shortest day of the year, I grabbed a couple of stacks and started going through artifacts of my life. The current pile is mostly cards and notes sent for occasions long forgotten. I developed a new rule: If I can’t recall who sent an item, it’s off to the shredder.

The owner of his namesake home, farm, and auto supply company used to send an annual, hand-written birthday card while I was employed there. Apparently, I kept them all. Amy Klobuchar sent a Christmas card in 2019 when she was running for president. I think she will run again. Tom Harkin’s operation was a Democratic machine and I have a couple of his Christmas cards. I am sorry to see him gone from the U.S. Senate.

My friend Ed sends irregularly arriving letters about the Veterans for Peace chapter we founded. In one was a photograph of 16 of us at the Iowa City Public Library. I pulled that out and put it on the magnetic white board next to my writing table. The group suffered a bit as the World War II and Korean War veterans died. In this month’s letter it was uncertain whether our chapter would survive.

There was a ticket stub from the June 13, 2009 performance of Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. Riverside Theatre produced the play on the Festival Stage at Lower City Park. Our child and I spent several nights there through those years, guarding the property from vandals. After our shift, we had breakfast at Hamburg Inn No. 2. I found a card from Ron Clark and Jodi Hovland thanking us for our support. One season, they both played mechanicals in Midsummer Night’s Dream, although I don’t recall if it was this performance. Theirs were some of my favorite performances in the many Shakespearean plays I have seen.

I found one of the last letters from Mother in an envelope addressed by my sister. Mother apologized for not baking a fruitcake due to complications with the aftermath of a root canal. I’m afraid the fruitcake tradition is barely alive at this point. If we were to make one, it would not be anything like hers. I believe we have family fruitcake recipes stashed away in piles and cookbooks. So, there’s that.

I found a recipe for Date Pinwheels provided by a friend from when we worked at the university. It is written in his hand. I pulled it out of the pile to stick in my hand written cookbook. My spouse and I were visitors to his apartment a few times. He was a fan of the Star Wars movies and had copies on the new technology of VHS video cassette. We watched a movie or two with him on VHS. We won’t be making any date pinwheels because one of us is vegan and we’ve yet to find a good substitute for eggs and butter in baking.

I finished the first stack and the next is a pile of letters, drafts and papers. Most of this pile is related to my autobiography. I kept most letters I received and there are many tucked away in different places. This pile has ones to which I referred in writing the first part of the work.

I printed the State of Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics Report on the Cherry Mine Disaster on Nov. 13, 1909. My grandfather worked the Cherry Mine although was not present the day of the fire which claimed 259 lives. He worked in several mines over his long career as a coal miner. I learned more about coal mining than I thought possible from reading this report. It explained the mine, how it was dug, and has a detailed description of the sequence of events during the disaster. Being a coal miner must have been a drudgery, one with constant danger of being buried alive. This is a common thread throughout my side of the family where both Mother and Father were descendants of coal miners.

Eventually I will dispose of all this paper. There is too much to leave as an inheritance. The purpose of my autobiography is to distill a narrative from these diverse documents. For now, having gone through them, they are back on the sorting table until I refer to them again. It’s a fit way to spend part of the holiday season.

Categories
Writing

41 Years

Unitarian Universalist Society of Iowa City, Dec. 18, 1982.

Yesterday we noted it has been 41 years since our wedding. We are still together. We spend more time together and need each other as we age. In these times, that a marriage lasted so long is atypical. That’s us.

I wrote about this moment in my work in progress autobiography:

If one looks at the wedding photograph of us standing in front of the church door, right after taking our vows, it represents what happiness looks like. The day was also a unique embarkation on a search for truth and meaning in our lives.

In the moment of that photograph, on a warm December day, within a small gathering of family and friends, at a modest reception, and with a wedding trip planned, we started the journey we continue today. Words can’t capture how we felt except to say, it was a defining moment full of every potential that life offers.

An Iowa Life, work in progress.

As we age, I do most driving and in-person shopping. Together we nurture our health. Like many marriages, ours had ups and downs. I try to focus on the good as I age. There is no denying we made a happy start. This photo is evidence.

Categories
Sustainability

No More Nuclear Power

Nuclear Power? – No Thanks

One of the items coming out of COP 28 was a declaration about the role of nuclear power in combating the climate crisis. The press release is titled “Declaration Recognizes the Key Role of Nuclear Energy in Keeping Within Reach the Goal of Limiting Temperature Rise to 1.5 Degrees Celsius.”

Among other things, participating states pledge to “commit to work together to advance a global aspirational goal of tripling nuclear energy capacity from 2020 by 2050, recognizing the different domestic circumstances of each Participant.” The problem is adding nuclear capacity by 2050 is not fast enough to address the climate crisis. In essence, the declaration is yet another delay tactic by moneyed interests. Like it or not, we are set to blow past a temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius. We can’t wait for nuclear power, especially when effective, easier to implement, and less expensive alternatives are available.

This 60-second video by Stanford Professor Mark Z. Jacobsen cuts to the chase. Time is running out.

Sunday evening, my congresswoman released a statement after attending COP 28. It includes this sketchy language about nuclear power: “advanced nuclear energy is being revisited to provide capacity and dispatchable continual base load to the energy mix.” In other words, she didn’t get the word that ten years ago, Iowa had an opportunity to build new nuclear power capacity and pulled the plug on it.

As Professor Jacobsen said in this video, new nuclear energy is no help whatsoever in solving the climate problem. We should proceed on that basis.

Categories
Writing

Substack and Me

Ready to check email.

Wikipedia: Substack is an American online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters. It allows writers to send digital newsletters directly to subscribers. Founded in 2017, Substack is headquartered in San Francisco.

Finding an audience is challenging. When I started writing in public in 1974, letters to the editor were the usual way to get people to read my work. I had vague notions of becoming a novelist, yet found it difficult to break from the exigencies of a life to produce a novel. In 2007, I began blogging and that, combined with social media, satisfied and is satisfying my need for a readership. I have modest needs.

I read a large number of WordPress blogs and the writing is usually good. There are about 60 million WordPress blogs. Regardless, most don’t seem to get much traction. While the static format can and does gain readership, authors yearn for something more.

I can see why Substack is more attractive than a static blog. It harks back to earlier days when everyone had a junk mail, or later, a junk email list. We would send out the same newsletter to everyone on the list. Often recipients replied and you knew they read your writing. The efficacy of that was mixed. I look at my daily stats of emails sent from this blog to email subscribers and less than 10 percent get opened. Can Substack, with email delivery, be any better?

A number of Substack missives find their way into my email inbox. The ones I read regularly can be counted on one hand: Heather Cox Richardson, Laura Rozen, Art Cullen, Liz Mair, and one finger left over. Simple fact is there are too many Substacks, not enough time. Julie Gammack has organized a large number of Iowa Substack writers, and listed 45 of them on a Sunday morning email. There are good writers among them, yet there are so many. It is too much work to pan through them all to find nuggets of gold.

I wonder why a writer like Heather Cox Richardson publishes on Substack rather than being syndicated in a couple hundred newspapers. I suppose there is a benefit to being able to hit send on the computer when the piece is done, rather than meeting a newsroom deadline. Hopefully she has many paid subscribers and is getting rich from her Substack. Her reach and influence is a modern phenomenon. She deserves to be well-paid.

I get asked if I am moving to Substack. I am not. I figure to write in public until the 50th anniversary of my first letter to the editor in 1974. After that, I’ll focus on my unfinished autobiography and hopefully complete it by the time I turn 75… or before my mental capacity wanes. Then I plan to take it easy. God willing my eyes hold up and I’ll read more books written by others. I don’t see myself as an audio book guy. I may take up writing letters to friends, although my cohort is beginning to die off. I will continue gardening.

What has been important is building community, now with a new group of people whose interests intersect with mine. That new group will include many more young people, something I find is happening already on my new micro-blogging account on Threads. That is important as I wind down outside activities and focus on writing. If more young people read my posts, that’s what I want. I am far from cracking the code of any kind of viewership.

People will do what they want regarding Substack. I’m of an age where I don’t want to spend time learning something new, especially when I expect to be at writing in public for less than a year more. Like anything, Substack is no panacea for what ails a writer. As they say, though, not my circus, not my monkeys. I say live and let live… on substack if you please.

Categories
Living in Society

Haven No More

Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com

One of my long-standing beliefs is nearby Iowa City is a safe haven for LGBTIQA+ people. It is a place where people can live without undue fear and be who they are. It was, anyway. I recently heard the LGBTIQA+ community is breaking up. Folks are moving out of state to escape the regressive policies of our Republican state government. Governor Kim Reynolds has been the lynch pin in persecuting LGBTIQA+ folks and her supporters cheer her on. If what I heard is accurate, this is a sad legacy. We need a haven for the vulnerable until broad acceptance of diversity is forthcoming. By the fact of Iowa City being the county seat the haven it has been exists, yet seems under pressure.

I have been insulated from this because I don’t live or do much in the county seat. My LGBTIQA+ friends are long-standing and rooted. They are friends, not members of some group. When we get together we discuss important stuff like which schools are best, which clinics provide good health care, and politics, of course. This is what normal people do.

Changing perspectives of our lives in contemporary society is part of living. As Iowans abandon the countryside in favor of living in large metropolitan areas, there will be diversity in cities. That it is concentrated is more the problem. Like every other time in the state’s history diversity can cause isolation, alienation, and conflict. People literally get run out of small towns and cities because they are different. Unless one was born and grew up in Iowa, there is no reason to stay. My issue as a native Iowan is I don’t know where I would go if I left.

All of this makes life more difficult for an aging American. It would be great to invite LGBTIQA+ family members to move here and find a home closer to ours so we can spend more time together. They could be their authentic selves, including being part of our family. That remains possible in a more liberal county like ours, yet the freedom needed to perpetuate this culture is being eroded.

We’ll see where this ends. What I now understand is I must be more attentive to diversity in the county seat as well as where I live. If I am not, there will be safe havens no more.

Categories
Writing

Afternoon Walk

Trail walking, Dec. 13, 2023.

It was 2:30 p.m. by the time I took my daily walk along the lake trail. Many people were out as the ambient temperature approached 50 degrees Fahrenheit. It was a wholly different community in the afternoon compared to morning.

A large flock of geese swims on the lake. I don’t know why they linger. Ice had formed on parts of the surface, and waterfowl took to standing on it in groups. If it remains this warm, I’m not sure they will migrate further south. The lake has plenty in it to nourish them.

I was told by someone close to me I get a bit grouchy during winter. The warm weather encourages me to get outdoors, although communing with geese and other waterfowl doesn’t seem to relieve the condition. Breathing outdoors air is good for us, and the stench from nearby hog lots has mostly been absent. When spring comes farmers will spread manure on their fields and we locals will notice. This is part of living in Iowa, although anymore, grouchiness is endemic to living in the United States. We should treasure those among us who can resist this.

While checking the mail toward sunset, my neighbors were outdoors with their small children in the warm air hanging colored lights on a tree for the holidays. While walking back to the house, I remembered when our child was little. I said “hello” and minded my own business. Those early family memories are precious and fleeting. I didn’t want to intrude.

And so it is, we are living a life and then all of a sudden realize it is shorter than we thought it would be. My reaction to winter is to nestle into my writing room, turn on the space heater, and try to make progress on my autobiography. I also avoid thinking about my ultimate death and return to dust. Except for the manure spreading farmers, I look forward to spring. So it goes.

Categories
Living in Society

Russo-Ukraine War Continues

Photo by Mathias Reding on Pexels.com

We are nine, going on ten years into the Russo-Ukraine War and there’s no sign of resolution. Russia determined the Ukrainian people are part of Russia and annexed Crimea on Feb. 20, 2014. Russia now occupies one fifth of the Ukrainian land mass.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Washington, D.C. Monday as part of the Biden administration’s “last minute push to convince lawmakers to pass a supplemental funding bill, as officials warn that the money for Ukraine is running out,” wrote the Associated Press. I ask myself, “What are we doing in Ukraine?”

For a while, the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel pushed Ukraine out of the news. Conflict over the failure of the long-standing idea of a two-state solution to Israeli and Palestinian claims over the Holy Land, that began after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, took the headlines. This is mostly because every person I know has an opinion on the long-standing conflict in the Middle East. It was a more current thing to talk about rather than hundreds of thousands of people dying in the Russo-Ukraine War. Historian Lawrence Wittner wrote about this on the IPPNW Peace and Health Blog.

Grinding on for nearly two years, Russia’s massive military invasion of that country has taken hundreds of thousands of lives, created millions of refugees, wrecked Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and economy, and consumed enormous financial resources from nations around the world.

And yet, despite the Ukraine War’s vast human and economic costs, there is no sign that it is abating.  Russia and Ukraine are now bogged down in very bloody military stalemate, with about a fifth of Ukraine’s land occupied and annexed by Russia.

Lawrence Wittner, Replacing a disastrous war with a just peace, IPPNW Peace and Health Blog, Dec. 11, 2023.

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer posted the following on Threads:

Schumer doesn’t tell half the story and it is not because of the word limit on Threads. When communicating in or to media, the Majority Leader needs to keep it simple. Surprised he hasn’t said something like “Russia bad, Ukraine good.” Maybe Schumer is right to say it like that. I am of an age I want to know more of the story.

Atlantic Monthly writer Tom Nichols wrote about communications on Monday.

President Joe Biden is trying to run for reelection on a record of policy successes. In modern American politics, this is a nonstarter: Many Americans no longer tie policy successes or failures to individual politicians. Instead, they decide what they like or don’t like and then assign blame or credit based on whom they already love or hate.

Tom Nichols, The Glare of Presidential Power, The Atlantic Daily, Dec. 11, 2023.

“Many American voters now want a superhero, not a president,” Nichols stated. What these voters don’t want is to think about is the devastation in Ukraine attributable in large part by United States support for the war.

In a Dec. 10 substack article titled, “Ukraine’s Percolating Hatred of America,” Matt Bivens, M.D. wrote:

We’re coming up on the two-year mark of this completely avoidable and utterly mismanaged disaster. The beautiful Ukrainian countryside is devastated. Enormous sums of money, and the lives of hundreds of thousands of young soldiers, have been squandered. Millions have fled Ukraine, including many of the young men. The old men — those too tied to their communities to go into hiding from the draft — are who’s left to carry on the fight.

And now, we’ll waste their lives, too.

Matt Bivens, M.D., Ukraine’s Percolating Hatred of America, The 100 Days substack, Dec. 10, 2023.

Bivens addresses the “the burden of guilt that the United States bears for this pointless tragedy.” The story he tells is appalling on multiple levels. I won’t summarize except to say it should be more widely circulated than it is on substack.

My bottom line on Ukraine is we elected people to manage the support we have provided to the country. We should support Ukraine in this fight against Russia. How much support is enough? Today that question refers to financial support Republicans are unwilling to give as the president proposed it. To me, the country elected Joe Biden and when Ukraine’s war with Russia is flagging we have a choice to make. Do we continue as we have been doing and fill the president’s order for more funds? Or do we take stock of where we are and either go all in, or move on to other pressing problems? Those are tough questions for a citizen to answer. For now, I support the president.

Categories
Writing

In the Word Hunt

Over the weekend I read Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Apparently I was the only person in the known universe who had not heard of her. Printed right there — inside the front cover — are 17 other published works of her fiction and nonfiction. My copy is the 25th Anniversary Edition! I’ve been here all along. Where has she been?

I couldn’t write like her. First, I don’t think I am capable of her stylistic renderings. Second, I prefer a more utilitarian approach. Maybe number two is a reason people have trouble finishing my longer works. The book was entertaining with a couple of nuggets I might actually use. The namesake one, “Just take it bird by bird,” is something similar to what I heard long ago during a Dale Carnegie course, “An air traffic controller can land only one plane at a time.” So it has been without knowing Lamott.

I don’t need to review Lamott’s book because it speaks for itself. I posted a photo of the cover on social media and so many people commented it was one of their favorites. Besides, there are 9,858 Goodreads reviews already.

What I do want to say is it is important to take a break from writing and read a book on being a writer and all that means. At a certain point such books are an easy read with a lot of head-nodding. In a long term project like my autobiography is, one that stretches into years, it is important to walk away for a while and listen to what others say about writing to gain a sense of perspective and hope. Reading about how to write can also be a way to break writers’ block.

I’ve taken to opening the garage door and standing outside in the predawn darkness. Today, stars were out. Because of the layout of trees in the yard, I couldn’t identify any constellations. It was just starlight shining down on me with a reminder we are all stardust. To put it in more utilitarian language, the way scientist Neil DeGrasse Tyson did, “The four most common chemically active elements in the universe—hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen—are the four most common elements of life on Earth. We are not simply in the universe. The universe is in us.”

I’m ready to get back to writing.