On Friday, I received a sad call from an old friend. Juleen Lisher called to let me know that her husband, my old friend, had died on Election Day. It seems his last words were, "Did Obama win the election?"
In my last visit to Santa Cruz, where John and Juleen lived and operated one of my favorite stores, Artisans Gallery, John and I were able to visit. We talked chamber stuff, politics, what was new to me and his failing health.
After our visit I told Diane that I was afraid this would be the last time I would see this great man alive. Sad to say, my feelings were right. Juleen told me that I was one of the last of his old friends to visit him and shortly after our visit this October, his health took a further turn for the worse and his 76 years of life came to an end less than three weeks later.
John was not only a friend, he was a mentor as well. For knowing him I know I am a better man. He got me involved in the chamber business and I was able to follow him at the Santa Cruz Chamber after he had to step down from having a heart attack. Due to John I got involved in my first visioning community effort, Vision Santa Cruz. This experience led to being the second President of Shared Vision, Inc in Albuquerque New Mexico and Vision 2030 in Bend Oregon. His encouragement led me to be the President and CEO of three chambers: Santa Cruz, Tracy and Bend Oregon.
John, you will be missed and my love and respect for you will continue long after your passing. John was truly one of the "Good Guys" and for having known him we who can count him as a friend are much better for it.
I will miss you John as I know that so many others feel as I do. God bless and keep you and thanks for being my friend and mentor. You have made the lives of those you have touched so much better. Thank you!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Yes We Can
Victory on November 4th. The American people have elected Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States of America. We the people chose hope over fear, peace over war, opportunity over favoritism and a willingness to be responsible for our own actions. I am so proud to have been an early Obama supporter and that hours of walking precincts and talking to anyone who would listen that this man is worth their vote, their support, their money in support of his campaign. I am more hopeful tonight than I have been over the past eight years under George W. Bush. And I thank God that we do not have to put up with four more years of George W. Bush II, John "I supported Bush 90% of the time" McCain. God bless the United States of America. Our new President is going to need all the help possible to dig us out of the mess the past eight years under Republican rule have left us. It's truly a new day for the USA!
Monday, November 3, 2008
Day Before Election Day
Tomorrow is Nov 4, 2008, Election Day. I am a 100% supporter for Obama and hope and pray he is elected our 44th President. When I think of what it is to be Presidential, I was pleased to see a survey by Parade Magazine that listed the following qualities and how McCain and Obama ranked on presidential qualities. Here they are:
Quality McCain Obama
Courage to stay strong 49% 51%
Learns from errors 50% 50%
Willingness to change 34% 66%
Understanding people's concerns 36% 64%
Strong moral compass 40% 60%
A gift to inspiring others 31% 69%
So, it looks like the readers of Parade, who are more likely to be Conservative and educated, feel Obama is more presidential. I agree.
No matter who wins this election, the fact is that this person will inherit more problems that any president in modern times. An economy in decline, two wars - one we should have never got involved in, a world that sees America as part of the problem and not part of the solution and corruption that is unprecedented in DC. A lot of work to do and it will take years to solve. God bless the USA...we need His help badly.
Quality McCain Obama
Courage to stay strong 49% 51%
Learns from errors 50% 50%
Willingness to change 34% 66%
Understanding people's concerns 36% 64%
Strong moral compass 40% 60%
A gift to inspiring others 31% 69%
So, it looks like the readers of Parade, who are more likely to be Conservative and educated, feel Obama is more presidential. I agree.
No matter who wins this election, the fact is that this person will inherit more problems that any president in modern times. An economy in decline, two wars - one we should have never got involved in, a world that sees America as part of the problem and not part of the solution and corruption that is unprecedented in DC. A lot of work to do and it will take years to solve. God bless the USA...we need His help badly.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Election 2008
Last night Diane and I did something historical, we voted for the first black man for President of the United States. with 14 days to go before Nov 4, the polls all show Obama with between a 9 and 11 point lead over McBush (McCain). It is my daily prayer that the good Lord does not give us another 4 years under Republican rule. In just the past two weeks this country has had a financial meltdown, with folks like myself losing over 2 trillion dollars in 401K savings. We're bogged down in two wars costing us over $10 billion a month with no end in sight. The de-regulation of the financial services and insurance industries, le by Phil Gramm in the last days of the Reagan administration (1999) only took about 19 years to unravel our entire financial world, with a Republican (Socalist) led bailout of some $700 trillion dollars.
John McBush has stooped to a new low in campaigning. His and Sarah Palin's daily attacks on Obama with lies and half truths which even past Republican campaigns never stooped as low. John McBush is running scared, telling lies and with God's will be heavily defeated by close of business on Nov 4.
I am proud to say that I voted for Obama, that I believe him to be an honorable man with the best interests of this country in mind. Unlike John McBush who is so consumed with being President (knowing it's his last chance at 72 to run for President) that he has said and done anything and everything, if it is true or not, to be elected. We have had Presidents like John McBush before...namely George W. Bush, our current disgrace of an American President.
It's time for a change and not one that moves us from one Republican dictator to another, but a new President who believes in the best of this country. One who believes in economic development over war. One who is committeed to a "Green Economy" and not one based in selling arms to anyone with the money to pay for them. One who wants the middle-class to succeed, not some "trickle down" philosophy that hopes the folks in the middle and at the bottom will somehow get some benefit from the rich getting richer.
Yes, it's time for a real change and Barak Obama is the right man, at the right time, for the right cause. God bless this planet and may America once again be a leader in peace and not a puppet of the super rich and powerful. I encourage all Americans to vote for their future by voting for Barak Obama.
John McBush has stooped to a new low in campaigning. His and Sarah Palin's daily attacks on Obama with lies and half truths which even past Republican campaigns never stooped as low. John McBush is running scared, telling lies and with God's will be heavily defeated by close of business on Nov 4.
I am proud to say that I voted for Obama, that I believe him to be an honorable man with the best interests of this country in mind. Unlike John McBush who is so consumed with being President (knowing it's his last chance at 72 to run for President) that he has said and done anything and everything, if it is true or not, to be elected. We have had Presidents like John McBush before...namely George W. Bush, our current disgrace of an American President.
It's time for a change and not one that moves us from one Republican dictator to another, but a new President who believes in the best of this country. One who believes in economic development over war. One who is committeed to a "Green Economy" and not one based in selling arms to anyone with the money to pay for them. One who wants the middle-class to succeed, not some "trickle down" philosophy that hopes the folks in the middle and at the bottom will somehow get some benefit from the rich getting richer.
Yes, it's time for a real change and Barak Obama is the right man, at the right time, for the right cause. God bless this planet and may America once again be a leader in peace and not a puppet of the super rich and powerful. I encourage all Americans to vote for their future by voting for Barak Obama.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
My Two Cents - No BAILOUT for the RICH
The $700 Billion Government Bailout – NO WAY!
In looking for solutions, the government must put the people first. Mortgage lenders, investment bankers and the brokerage community who require that their “profits be privatized” but now want to “socialize their risk” can’t have it both ways. They got us into this crisis by not asking whether the people they lent money to could repay. Now those who borrowed are facing the loss of their homes as market conditions have changed. Yes, the consumer has to take some blame in this crisis as do the realtors, but those who lent the money had the primary responsibility – can you repay the loan? Banks benefited from reselling the homeowner’s promise to pay to the investment bankers and brokerages houses, creating billions in profits.
Now the value of many of these homes has dropped beyond what the home buyer owes. What happens when the home buyers loses their houses? The banks end up with unoccupied houses and a mortgage that won’t be repaid – a lose lose for everyone. Let’s go back to basics.
Rather than a bail out of the investment bankers and brokerage houses, let’s protect the people and reset the economy based on the true market value of these properties, as they stand today. Congress should provide 5% fixed-rate 30 year loans for those “owner-occupied” homes, using today’s market value; therefore permitting people to stay in their homes and pay off their new loans. To help the banks, people could secure these new loans through the original lender they used to obtain their mortgage. There by, providing lenders with revenue, income from fees and other services which will help re-stabilize the banking and mortgage industry. If the house is worth less than the previous outstanding debt, let the private sector deduct the difference from their taxes. This will be far cheaper than the $700 billion blank check currently being considered. If the home owner defaults under the current $700 billion bail out scenario, the banks end up with homes they can’t unload, loans that will not be repaid, and our economy suffers even more.
By assisting taxpaying homeowners, the markets are stabilized and the banks make money. Moreover, the people who demand that their “profits remain privatized” and who now want their “debt socialized” will pay for the mistakes they made in their rush for a quick buck. Under the strategy of helping homeowners first, the mortgage holder benefits by receiving payments on properties which otherwise would be in foreclosure, we don’t end up with a ton of foreclosed homes in the marketplace and there’s no blank check to those who don’t deserve our trust. Yes, Congress must bail out the people, not the investment bankers and brokerage houses. It’s time for them to do the right thing for the people of this country.
In looking for solutions, the government must put the people first. Mortgage lenders, investment bankers and the brokerage community who require that their “profits be privatized” but now want to “socialize their risk” can’t have it both ways. They got us into this crisis by not asking whether the people they lent money to could repay. Now those who borrowed are facing the loss of their homes as market conditions have changed. Yes, the consumer has to take some blame in this crisis as do the realtors, but those who lent the money had the primary responsibility – can you repay the loan? Banks benefited from reselling the homeowner’s promise to pay to the investment bankers and brokerages houses, creating billions in profits.
Now the value of many of these homes has dropped beyond what the home buyer owes. What happens when the home buyers loses their houses? The banks end up with unoccupied houses and a mortgage that won’t be repaid – a lose lose for everyone. Let’s go back to basics.
Rather than a bail out of the investment bankers and brokerage houses, let’s protect the people and reset the economy based on the true market value of these properties, as they stand today. Congress should provide 5% fixed-rate 30 year loans for those “owner-occupied” homes, using today’s market value; therefore permitting people to stay in their homes and pay off their new loans. To help the banks, people could secure these new loans through the original lender they used to obtain their mortgage. There by, providing lenders with revenue, income from fees and other services which will help re-stabilize the banking and mortgage industry. If the house is worth less than the previous outstanding debt, let the private sector deduct the difference from their taxes. This will be far cheaper than the $700 billion blank check currently being considered. If the home owner defaults under the current $700 billion bail out scenario, the banks end up with homes they can’t unload, loans that will not be repaid, and our economy suffers even more.
By assisting taxpaying homeowners, the markets are stabilized and the banks make money. Moreover, the people who demand that their “profits remain privatized” and who now want their “debt socialized” will pay for the mistakes they made in their rush for a quick buck. Under the strategy of helping homeowners first, the mortgage holder benefits by receiving payments on properties which otherwise would be in foreclosure, we don’t end up with a ton of foreclosed homes in the marketplace and there’s no blank check to those who don’t deserve our trust. Yes, Congress must bail out the people, not the investment bankers and brokerage houses. It’s time for them to do the right thing for the people of this country.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
No. 8 of 12 and Deepak Chopra on Sarah
Hell-o from Bend. Today our middle dauther, Kim, informed us we are going to have our 12th grandchild, their 8th. No, life is not cheaper by the dozen.
Please take a momeent and read the following:
Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.
She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.
Look at what she stands for:
--Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad.
--Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.
--Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.
--"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.
Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.
Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.
Please take a momeent and read the following:
Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin's pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.
She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of "the other." For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don't want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin's message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.
Look at what she stands for:
--Small town values -- a denial of America's global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
--Ignorance of world affairs -- a repudiation of the need to repair America's image abroad.
--Family values -- a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don't need to be heeded.
--Rigid stands on guns and abortion -- a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
--Patriotism -- the usual fallback in a failed war.
--"Reform" -- an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn't fit your ideology.
Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from "us" pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of "I'm all right, Jack," and "Why change? Everything's OK as it is." The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness.
Obama's call for higher ideals in politics can't be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow -- we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
20 and Counting
Today is Diane's and my 20th year together as man and wife. I feel so fortunate to have her in my life and am looking forward to another 20+ years together. It's hard to believe it's been 20 years. Time flys when you're haveing fun, an adventure, a life together. I LOVE YOU DI, what more needs to be said. Mike
Sunday, September 14, 2008
A Good Weekend
This has been a good weekend. Oklahoma Univeristy, Oregon University and the 49ers all won, the weather was beautiful...one of the nicest weekends this summer.
I would recommend seeing Righteous Kill starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. Good movie.
I would recommend seeing Righteous Kill starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. Good movie.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Welcome to Mike in Bend's Blog. Right now I am co-chairing the Citizens for Bend Area Transit - Measure 9-60 on the November ballot. This measure will create a new taxing district, dedicated to transit and serving the Bend UGB and Deschutes River Woods with fixed route and Dial-A-Ride service. It will also provide sustainable funding, costing the average household less than a tank of gas per year, expanding service by two hours in the evening, adding new service to the west side of Bend, creating a new fixed-transit route from the new Les Schwab HQ on the east side of Bend down to Deschutes River Woods.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)