Childhood Dreams come True

With all the discouraging news we find in newspapers today, it's fun to see a story about a dream come true. Today that story is about the demonstration of a jetpack--that comic book device to make individuals fly like a bird. Many of us remember seeing pictures of childhood superheroes lifting off from the ground and jetting off in pursuit of villains. What a sense of power! People have always longed to fly and they were not thinking of sitting jammed in a a 747, but rather of leaping alone and free into the air. Although the current model is not available to the general public, and though it has a long way to go before it becomes a practical transportation device, it does feed our dreams and make us think that perhaps at last that vision of flying across the countryside may become true--if not for us then perhaps our children or grandchildren. Dreams go on forever.

Women helping women

This morning's S.F. Chronicle features a story about how a group of women in Uganda are becoming self-sufficient and supporting their families by making jewelry. Two Colorado women bought some of the handmade beads fashioned by a Ugandan woman from old magazines. They brought some home in 2003 and discovered that the beads were popular with friends and neighbors. This led to their starting a nonprofit project to train other women to make beads and send them to the U.S. and other countries. The project Beads for Life now has 300 women in Uganda making beads and another 100 learning how to make them. The colorful, attractive necklaces, bracelets and notecards are available online from their website. It's difficult to find overseas aid projects that offer not only help for immediate needs, but hope for future self-sufficiency. This one is worth taking note of. 

Girls can too!

There's some good news today from the education front. The long-standing stereotype that boys are better than girls at math seems to be a big mistake. Recent research shows that just as many of today's girls do well on math tests as boys do. Just about half of the math majors graduating from college today are women. The long-held belief that boys enjoy math and girls enjoy reading appears shattered. Remember when Mattel put out a Barbie doll which complained "Math classes are tough"? Those days are gone forever, so let's encourage more young women to study math and move into some of the high-paying jobs available.

Advantage to men

On the front page of many newspapers and featured in the TV news are pictures of the recently arrested Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic. If we firmly put out of our minds the terrible story of his deeds and concentrate on the before and after pictures of his disguise, many women can't help but feel jealous. Those of us raised on Nancy Drew and Kinsey Mulhone are well aware of the fantasy of cleverly disguising ourselves to fool the bad guys and solve crimes. But in this department women have nothing as effective as the ability to grow a beard. Sure we can dye our hair, but there is always the problem of the roots showing and maintaining a good dye job takes constant care. Make-up helps, but has to be constantly renewed.  And we can put on or take off large eyeglasses, but they seldom do the trick. A big bushy beard, a Hercule Poirot style mustache or even a small goatee would be so much more effective than anything we can come up with. In the end all we can do is sigh and remind ourselves that this handy disguise possibility may not be worth the daily shaving men have to do. Perhaps there is some equality after all.

Can we handle the voters?

The coming presidential election is expected to bring a flood of new voters to the polls. Registration figures in many states are already at record highs and there are many weeks left for new voters to register. Many of these new voters will be unfamiliar with using a voting machine, and even experienced voters may be facing a new type of machine this year. More than half of all voters will be using machines different from the ones they used in the last presidential election. How are the states handling this issue? An article in the N.Y. Times outlines the problems that must be overcome. An unusually large number of poll workers must be found and trained, and many states, including California, do not have adquate resources to pay for these. If a paper trail must be generated, the election departments must order enough ballots to meet the needs of each polling place without ordering so many that there will be expensive wastage. Voting lists much be updated and checked or voters may find themselves unable to cast a ballot. Tova A. Wang, vice president for research at Common Cause is quoted as saying "Allocating enough ballots and machines is a tricky science under any circumstances, but especially when turnout is proving to be so unpredictable." This year more than any other, League members and others committed to encouraging voting need to volunteer to help their local election department to educate new and inexperienced voters about what to expect when they enter to voting booth. It will be a big job for all of us.

Another crazy vision?

Once Al Gore gets an idea in mind, he goes all out for it. In these last few years he has persuaded most Americans that global warming is real and that it is a danger to all of us. Now he has come up with a radical idea--a challenge for "getting 100 percent of our electricity from renewable resources and carbon-constrained fuels within ten years". That sounds like a unreachable goal. The costs will be high, the technology doesn't yet exist, and the timeline is short. Bob Herbert's column in the New York Times offers a far more optimistic assessment pointing out how many near-impossible tasks the U.S. has accomplished over the years, from winning World War II to developing a space program. We seem to be in a slump of confidence now, unable to imagine overcoming new challenges, but if enough enthusiastic citizens sign on for Al Gore's vision, we may find new strength and surprise ourselves. It's worth trying!

Bad news for schools

Despite what seems like endless forms to fill out and paperwork to complete, schools don't seem able to keep track of students. A new report reveals that the drop-out rate for California students is almost twice as high as had been thought. Figures are difficult to tally because there are some legitimate ways for students to disappear from schools--they start homeschooling or they move to another state--but the truth seems to be that about 25% of high school students in California do not receive a diploma. This figure represents thousands of individuals who will almost certainly be disadvantaged in the job market for the rest of their lives. Their chances of earning a decent income, living a comfortable life and raising a family are low. They can't all depend on winning a lottery to make them rich. One of the most disturbing factors in this picture is that African American and Latino students are more likely to drop out of school than are members of other ethnic groups. Teachers have been aware of these trends for years but now we have more reliable documentation. This is indeed a crisis and the community should take action to see it does not continue.

Low turnout, lots of mail

Everyone knew the voter turnout for the June primary election would be low, but now a report from the Secretary of State's office documents just how low it was. Only 28.2% of registered voters throughout the state voted, about half as many as turned out in the presidential primary in February. A majority of those who cast votes did so by mail--58.7% statewide. Some small counties did all of their voting by mail. San Francisco did not do as badly as some other counties, like Los Angeles. The turnout in San Francisco was 40.2% of registered voters, with 51.8% of them voting by mail. This is the first election in which a majority of votes were cast by mail. Those of us who urge people to vote, must be discouraged by the low figures, even though they were expected. When you look at these figures for people who have taken the trouble to register and then consider the numbers of those who haven't taken that first step, it means that very few citizens expressed any opinion at all on the candidates and issues on the June ballot. Despite all the ads and the publicity, many people don't take time to vote. Of course many more will show up in November, but it is important for whoever is elected President in that election to know how people feel on issues and candidates. It's only by voting in every election that citizens are participating fully in democracy. There's still a lot of work to be done.

Can we take the truth?

Those of us who spend time trying to get citizens out to vote, hope those we encourage will cast their votes responsibly. Sometimes, however, as we watch the struggle to find a budget for California, we have to wonder whether voters are willing to accept the truth and to vote for people who will face reality. The L.A. Times today features a tough-love article about the fact that most citizens accept the unworkable structure of California's budget process. Most voters support requiring a super majority to pass the budget; most voters approve of term limits, yet both these positions have let to an almost comic spectacle of the legislature struggling to provide revenue for the realistic needs of Californians. Whether or not you agree with its suggestions, this article is well worth reading.

Health care bill coming

The trouble with being a concerned citizen and raising your voice in support of issues you care about is that it takes so much time. Luckily the League is very helpful in giving us a heads-up when important issues are being considered in the legislature. One of the bills that many people care about is California's Health Care Bill:
SB 840 (Kuehl) Single-payer health care coverage. (A-07/10/2007 html pdf)
Status: 07/10/2007-Read second time. Amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR.
Location: 07/10/2007-A APPR.

Summary: Would establish the California Healthcare System to be administered by the newly created California Healthcare Agency under the control of a Healthcare Commissioner appointed by the Governor and subject to confirmation by the Senate. The bill would make all California residents eligible for specified health care benefits under the California Healthcare System, which would, on a single-payer basis, negotiate for or set fees for health care services provided through the system and pay claims for those services. The bill would provide that a resident of the state with a household income, as specified, at or below 200% of the federal poverty level would be eligible for the type of benefits provided under the Medi-Cal program. The bill would require the commissioner to seek all necessary waivers, exemptions, agreements, or legislation to allow various existing federal, state, and local health care payments to be paid to the California Healthcare System, which would then assume responsibility for all benefits and services previously paid for with those funds. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.

On Wednesday, July 16, there will be a hearing on this bill, SB 840, in the Assembly Appropriations Committee chaired by Mark Leno. If you care about moving the bill forward, NOW is the time to contact your Assembly representative and urge his or her support for this bill. If possible, you could even go to Sacramento and sit in on the hearing.

Seen any good movies?

We don't often think of a G-rated animated movie as giving us political direction, but Frank Rich's column in the N.Y. Times today gives a pretty good idea of how much we could learn by seeing the weekend's hit Wall-E. After reading and listening to some of the trivial political commentary which is coming think and fast in this election season, perhaps it would be good to turn to contemplating a possible future when the earth would be truly uninhabitable and where citizenship has become a carnival of unlimited shopping with government by a global corporation called Buy N Large. Even though this future is unlikely to come to pass, it contains enough possible truth to make us all think--and perhaps to question our government and ourselves about how we are going to build the future we really want for the generations to come.

Who's watching you?

Most of us surf the Internet reading bits of information or watching videos without thinking of who might be watching what we are watching. Now a struggle over protecting online copyright material has led a federal judge to order YouTube to tell Viacom what individuals are watching online. Privacy advocates worry about this new invasion of privacy because YouTube's information would include the unique identification of individual computers. It's unlikely that Viacom cares who is watching Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, but they do care how many people watch these shows online instead of on TV. It's always difficult to worry about whether a huge corporation might not be getting all the money it deserves, but the underlying principle of Internet privacy is important. As more information and entertainment gathering shifts to the Internet, decisions about who has the right to know what people are doing online are important. The Fourth of July is a celebration of freedom, but freedom is never absolute and drawing the line of where individual freedom stops still requires eternal vigilance.

Why women don't speak up

When you go to a League meeting, or to meetings of other community groups, women are well represented and often express their opinions freely. When you look at the op-ed pages of newspapers, however, the great majority of columns are written by men. An article in the S.F. Chronicle reports that efforts are being made to change that. Seminars are being offered regularly in cities, including San Francisco, to encourage women to end that disparity. Why don't women write more opinion pieces? One suggestion is that women find it difficult to say they are "experts" on any particular area. Many women are accustomed to portraying themselves as less knowledeable than they are and defering to the opnions of others. Isn't it about time we encouraged women to speak up, not just in local venues, but also on the pages of newspapers and magazines to talk about their ideas and make suggestions about public policy?