If I Was Running For President

If I was running for President, I would:

1) Find out what the real issues for the country are, and not create issues that incite anger and violence in order to get votes.

2) Not kick anyone out of my rallies.  If a heckler spoke up, I would address that heckler's concerns right there, in front of everyone else.  Why do you want to ridicule or bully one of your fellow citizens?  He or she has as much right to speak out as you do.  A rally is a great place for intelligent conversation about both sides of an issue.

3) If I was President and had a Congress that was stonewalling my every move, I would meet with some key leaders and say, "What the hell are you doing? The country is the main priority, not your vindictive agenda.  We were all elected to do a job until we are out of office and we need to work together until then."  And I would keep pushing these leaders until they started becoming more cooperative.  Then it would be time to negotiate.

I believe in a mixed economy.  Neither 100% government or 100% capitalism is good, as it makes one or the other too strong.  We need to strike a balance.  Capitalism is good for investment & risk, with reasonable regulations set by the government.  For obvious reasons, it's never too good for government to have too much control.  On the other hand, you have to remember that the primary goal of capitalism is to earn a profit.  But what good is profit when it becomes a higher priority than the basic needs of life, such as health, education, food and shelter?  How is it fair that a certain segment of the population can have easy access to these basics, while others struggle daily to get the basics of the basics?  I'm all in favor of investors and stockholders earning a profit as long as it doesn't take away the basics that others need to survive.  This is why a mixed economy works. 

I'm always suspicious when a business person comes in and says they want to run a school district, hospital or some other non-profit venue "like a business."  It changes the primary objective of the organization to making a profit.  Keeping expenses down is good, as long as the primary goal of the venue is not lost.  Obviously you'd need to look at how you're spending money if your expenses are higher than your income.

Regarding personal freedoms and rights in the U.S., in general, I believe people should be able to do whatever they want as long as it does not interfere with someone else's rights or well-being.

My positions on current issues:

Guns - Reasonable regulation to keep guns away from people who should not have them.

Drugs - Legalize them.  The drug war is costing billions of dollars and people are being badly hurt or killed because of it.  The country or states would earn taxes instead of spending tax money on a pointless war.  With no black market for drugs, the gangs selling them would disappear.  I believe there would be less of an addiction problem since there would be no black market pushers trying to earn a profit.  Along with all that, regulation in how drugs are marketed.

Health Care - I believe health care should be run by non-profit companies and agencies.  It's a compromise between government-run health care and capitalistic health care.  The problem with a for-profit health care arrangement is that the primary purpose of a for-profit company is to make a profit, putting health care second.  I think that's backwards.  I think a health care company's primary purpose should be health care.  I understand that many people don't want the government running health care, so why not let non-profit companies run health care?  Pay a fair salary to the CEO and others who run it well, but then let the profits go back into affordable health care, and not stockholders.

Abortion - While I personally abhor abortion, I don't think it's the government's business to be involved in telling a woman what to do with her body.  It seems like it's the party of "keep government off the backs of people" that's telling women what they can or can't do.

Same-Sex Marriage - Again, it's a personal decision between the two people who want to get married. No one else should be telling them what they can or can't do.  If you object on religious grounds, you need to be reminded that in America, we have freedom of religion.  So, keep your religion to yourself when it comes down to what people of other religious beliefs want to do.

Immigration - This country was founded on immigration.  If you're an immigrant or the descendant of immigrants, then you have no business saying other immigrants should not be allowed to enter under proper circumstances.  As for "illegal immigration," yes it's a problem and there should be a reasonable way to handle it.  I don't have an answer for the method, but the wrong way is the idea of rounding them up Gestapo-style and sending them back.  If I were running for President, I would encourage the opposing parties to get together and work out a solution instead of stonewalling each other.

Education - Everyone should have equal access to public education.  A reasonable set of goals can be used to set national standards, but not with extensive testing or using these tests to evaluate teachers.  Finland has a fantastic education system and I will defer all further thoughts on this topic to the Finnish schooling system.  Google it and read about it.  As for charter schools and private schools, families are free to send their kids to them, but that should not absolve them of their responsibility to contribute their share of taxes to public schools.

“Corporations are People” – No, I do NOT agree with this concept.  Per Dictionary.com, a corporation is “An association of individuals created by law or under authority of law, having a continuous existence independent  of the existences of its members, and powers and liabilities distinct from those of its members.”

So, if this association is created to separate its human members from liabilities, and to collectively have powers they otherwise wouldn't have, how can you say corporations are people? 

I hear too many pundits blaming unemployment and lack of health insurance on lazy welfare recipients, etc. Sure, they are out there, but my own exposure has been to mostly decent, hard-working people who are unemployed due to no fault of their own.

I find the polarizing talk shows and bigmouth one-sided pundits to be very discouraging and a threat to America's well-being. I admit to being a huge fan of Rush Limbaugh for a couple of years in the early 1990's. After awhile I started to realize that I was only hearing one side of an argument; the fact is there are always two sides to an argument. The truth lies somewhere in between. I believe people who only listen to pundits on one end of the spectrum are doing themselves a huge disservice. I rather like the concept of "equal time," but with the proliferation of all media beyond traditional broadcasting, it's unlikely to be workable today. 

There is no way that conservatives can be right all the time or liberals can be right all the time. Society, industry, technology, communication methods and transportation methods are always evolving. What may work in one era may not work in another era. What may work in one geographical location might not work in another geographic location. While we must learn from history, we cannot set in stone that past methods will or won't work today or in the future. It is through true, honest DISCUSSION and not mudslinging and attacks that we will find compromise on these issues.

I am very proud to be an American. It may not be a perfect country, but I like it better than any other country and there is no other place I'd rather live in.

Why I Watch Channel 13 WHAM News (And it's not for the reason you think)

Most of my friends know I worked at Channel 10 WHEC for 32 years, until my position was eliminated in September, 2014.  While I still enjoy seeing my former colleagues on WHEC's news programs from time to time, the little bit of watching TV news these days is with their primary competitor, Channel 13 WHAM.  You might think it's due to bitterness over how my termination with my former employer was handled.

That's not the case.  I watch Channel 13 WHAM because they have the only news program in town with live closed captioning.  Due to my being hard of hearing, I rely heavily on closed captioning when I watch TV.  Most stations in town use scripted captioning.  It's terrible!  There are often gaps in captioning from late-breaking stories and live shots, and sometimes the teleprompter operator scrolls through the script quickly, making it impossible for a user of captioning at home to keep up with it.  Weather segments are usually scripted with just the forecast.  You don't get to read what the meteorologist is actually saying.  Weather people have personalities!  It would be nice to see what they say in captioned form!

With live captioning, everything that is said gets captioned.  All of the above, plus the ad-libbed conversation between anchors.

During my years at WHEC, I had occasional meetings with the former General Manager to try to convince him that WHEC should switch to live captioning.  His response was, "We are in compliance."

"Compliance?"  That's the ultimate corporate cop-out.  Never mind the fact that Rochester, NY has the highest percentage of Deaf and Hard of Hearing people in the U.S.  As far as I'm concerned, it was a missed opportunity to gain those people as dedicated viewers.

If you're not someone who uses closed captioning, try this:  Watch channel 8 or 10 news for awhile with the sound off and the captioning on.  See how much you miss.  Then watch channel 13 and see how much better the live captioning is.

I don't have any statistics to see if WHAM's ratings have gone up since they switched to live captioning, but I bet they have.  They've got me as a dedicated viewer now.

The End of a "Perfect" Marriage

Mary and I were college sweethearts and we married on May 13, 1984.  Our three daughters are now 29, 26 and 24.  To many, including us, it seemed we had the perfect marriage.  We were told that our relationship has been an inspiration to others.

So, it came as a complete shock to me earlier this winter when Mary told me she wanted to end our marriage.  After hearing the reasons, and bearing all the emotional turmoil that goes with a breakup, I still couldn't understand why, and I was looking for ways to rescue our marriage.  I have been to counseling.  I have talked with friends and family.  Mary and I have had extensive conversations.  Much of what is between us will remain private, but the "public" part of it is that we have simply grown apart.  Grown apart, in terms of common interests and future goals in life.

There is no animosity between us.  We talk like we are the great, old friends that we are.  We laugh and tell jokes to each other.  We have common interest in our three daughters and their friends and family.  But the bond to maintain a marriage just isn't there anymore.  It's a tough fact to accept and it's sad.  We can't dwell on the past and what might have been.  We are both excited about new plans for ourselves.

Obviously it has not been completely smooth sailing.  This weekend has been particularly hard, because it's Valentines Day weekend and that's when Mary moved to her new apartment.  She also had the misfortune of two cardiac arrests.  For those who are unaware, Mary is a survivor of multiple cardiac arrests.  She has an ICD which shocks her if and when she has one, and a pacemaker which overall keeps her heart rhythm normal.  At first, I was convinced she was going into what they called a "v-fib storm," which she had two years ago.  That was caused by a prescription she should not have been taking.  This time, it appears that the stress of the past several weeks or months caught up with her.  They have adjusted her heart meds and she is currently being monitored.  So far, all looks good.  Assuming it stays good, she will go home tomorrow.  (I always like to stress that a cardiac arrest is NOT a heart attack.  If you don't know the difference, please google it.)

So, it's been a rough weekend for both of us, but we are enduring it and  moving on.  I VERY MUCH appreciate all the nice comments I've been getting from friends and family.

For the record, I am planning to keep the house we just purchased last summer.  Mary is the one who wanted to move out, and she has a nice, new apartment that she is excited about.  Easy to take care of, low on the stress.

I love my bus driving job and hope to keep it, but admittedly it does not pay a lot.  I am exploring ways to either increase my income or switch to a different, higher paying job if it becomes necessary.  My wedding officiating business is going VERY well.  It's not enough to live on, but hopefully that plus bus driving and one more income source will take care of me.

Is it ironic for a guy who officiates weddings to be going through a marriage breakup?  No, not at all.  In fact, I've learned things from my own experience that can help others in their marriages.  I'm not a counselor, so I can't give pre-marital counseling, but I can definitely give some tips to new couples.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.  I can't predict what the future will hold and whether we'd ever get back together again, so for now, we are planning our separate lives.

Thank you again for all your support.

Statement About the 10th Anniversary of Mary's Sudden Cardiac Arrest

July 15, 2016 will mark the 10th anniversary that my wife, Mary, suffered but survived a Sudden Cardiac Arrest. (I always like to remark that a Sudden Cardiac Arrest is not a heart attack. They can happen at the same time, but they are two separate cardiac events.)

Some people are aware that I was planning to host a "Celebration of Mary's Life" to commemorate the 10th anniversary of her survival.  We recently discussed the whole situation and, for reasons of our own, decided to cancel it.

In this blog, I want to touch on some of the points I wanted to bring up at the celebration:

1) Mary is in the "5% Club."  Only 5% of people survive a Sudden Cardiac Arrest and go on to live a normal life.

2) My thoughts at the time included, "She has to survive!  She has too much of a positive impact on too many people's lives!"  She has more than proven how right I was about that observation.  Since then, she has helped our daughters in ways that I know I could never have done by myself. She has reached out to friends and other family members and had a positive influence in their lives; I believe she has indirectly saved some of their lives too. She communicates through Inspire.com with other victims, survivors and family members of people who have had a SCA.  She has had a  major influence on the lives of some of her students at school.  She is having a huge impact on a family friend who now has a severe, debilitating condition.  I am reminded of the  movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" when I think about how much better so many of these people are just by the fact that Mary is in their lives.  And of course, I am so much better off that she is my wife.

3) I want to recognize, once again, the Emergency Responders that were a part of saving Mary's life, and all Emergency Responders in general.  These are the real heroes in our society.

4) I want to especially recognize the 911 Dispatcher, Julie, who took my call when Mary first collapsed.  While sending help on its way, Julie took control of the situation, calmed me down, and helped me begin rescue efforts until the first firemen arrived.  Julie became a special person in our lives. We were able to meet her on several occasions, and she was a surprise guest at Mary's 50th birthday party.  Sad to say, we learned later on that she suffered her own health problems and passed away not long after we saw her at Mary's party.

5) I want to recognize all the medical personnel at Park Ridge Hospital (as it was called then), and all the personnel at the various medical facilities she has visited since then.

6) And nearly ten years later, I am still thankful for all the people who camped out in Park Ridge's waiting room outside the Intensive Care Unit.  I wish Mary could have seen that.

7) Summarizing where Mary is at today, we still don't know the cause of her Sudden Cardiac Arrests. (She had another one in December, 2007)  She has been tested for all known medical reasons and nothing is conclusive.  This is why we support donations to the American Heart Association and other organizations that help fund medical research.

So, although the event I was planning is cancelled, my thoughts are still about the circumstances surrounding Mary's Sudden Cardiac Arrest, her miraculous survival, the special people in our lives, and the efforts to continue medical research.  We intend to mark the 10th anniversary on July 15, 2016 without much fanfare.

I'll leave this blog with a video of Mary in 2007, addressing Emergency Responders and other attendees of the Emergency Responders Appreciation Day.  (You will see Julie on the right side)

Footsteps In Time

Read each column by itself, then read horizontally, left to right.

The Most Profound, Impulsive Decision I Ever Made

This is something I think about from time to time and it still boggles my mind.  In November of 1971, my mother signed me up to join the Greece Cadets Drum & Bugle Corps.  She had seen a clip in the newspaper that they were looking for new members.  The day she took me in the first time, I met the director, Dale Bond.  I didn’t play a music instrument at that time so he asked me if I wanted to learn drums or horns.  Without giving it any thought, I blurted out, “Drums.”

That single, impulsive decision has been the catalyst for just about everything I’ve done in my life since then, and it has affected untold numbers of other people.

In 1975, to further my drum education, my mother signed me up for lessons on a drum set.  That led to my forming a band in 1978 with a group of Athena students.  I went to Arcadia at the time.  Most of our rehearsals were in my basement, which meant my sisters and their friends got to meet these Athena students.  Who knows if they would have met otherwise?  Friendships, relationships and families formed and many of these people still socialize on a regular basis.

Because of my drumming, I’ve joined other bands through my life, met more people, and have formed friendships with many of them.  I’ve introduced some of these people who have met other people and formed more friendships.

It’s just really interesting for me to think about.  I hope you think about this, too.  How have you impacted other people’s lives?

The Time I Got Burned Out of My Home

While at work on a late afternoon in February, 2008, I got a call from Melissa. She told me she had just arrived home from school and that there was a lot of smoke in our townhouse. Not sensing anything urgent, I asked her if she could tell where it was coming from. She said she had walked around and couldn't tell. While we were on the phone, a maintenance worker came to the door and told her to get out, that the townhouse next door to ours was on fire. She asked me about the pets; I asked her if she could get them out. She said they were both right there, so yes. I told her to put them in the car.

At that point, I made arrangements to leave work early, pick up Mary, and then go home. Melissa called me a second time and said she had been moved to the apartment complex's community center and had the animals with her. She said there were a lot of fire trucks there.

While driving to pick up Mary, I felt strangely calm about all this. I seriously wondered if we had a home anymore and how much of our possessions were lost. But I didn't feel stressed at all. At least we knew to expect a parking lot full of fire trucks when we arrived.

We parked at the community center and I walked to our townhouse. The smoke and flames were gone by this point and the firemen were cleaning up. The front window of the townhouse next to ours was smashed out from firefighting efforts. Inside, the kitchen was completely destroyed. It had been an empty townhouse; maintenance workers were preparing it for the next tenant. One had left something sitting on a hot stove and gone to lunch. That's what started the fire. There was smoke damage to the rest of the townhouse, with black soot all over the place. Firemen threw the charred kitchen cabinets and stove to the lawn out front.

The firefighting effforts involved our own townhouse, since it had been full of smoke, as well as the townhouse on the other side of the burned one. Once my entry was cleared by the fire chief, a fireman escorted me into my townhouse so we could inspect it. The first thing that struck me was the smell; it was a HORRIBLE odor, unlike anything I've ever smelled before. In retrospect, it's amazing to think of how many everyday items are loaded with various chemicals; paint, cabinetry, construction materials, electrical wire insulation, flooring material, glues, etc. All of these chemicals are released when burned. The composite of all that is what we smelled.

The inspection of our home showed no fire damage. There were a couple spots where a little bit of water and soot had come through the wall, but it was easily cleaned up. Thank God for firewalls!

The real issue for us was the horrible odor. Red Cross showed up and asked us if we needed any assistance. We mistakenly believed we could air the place out for a few hours and all would be fine. But after a few hours had passed, we knew this wouldn't be the case. The apartment complex put us up in a hotel for a few nights and then gave us an empty corporate (furnished) apartment, as they did for the other family affected by this. For the next three weeks, the effort centered on getting rid of the smell in our place. I threw out a carpet from our basement. The carpets on the main and second floors were shampooed and all the surfaces were washed down. A chemical fogger was used to eliminate the smell from everything else. All of our clothes were washed. Since there was a coin-operated laundry in the basement of our corporate apartment, Mary's co-workers even took up a collection of quarters for us! That was very handy and very-much appreciated!

After all this, the odor was mostly gone, but we were still keenly aware of a minute lingering smell when we moved back in. Even after we moved to a differently apartment complex the following July, we could still smell the odor a bit on coats in our front closet.

Having a fire in my home is something I used to worry about a lot. I've never been comfortable with anyone using open flames or candles, although I have been OK with a fireplace because I feel like it's a contained situation. When we decided in 2006 to sell our "dream home" and go back to renting, the concern I had was whether our apartment would ever be affected by a neighbor's fire. With more than 100 units in the complex, I figured the odds were pretty slim. Who would have thought that of all those units, OURS would be next door to the one that burned! I HOPE this means statisically it shouldn't happpen again!

As I said at the beginning, I felt strangely calm through this whole incident. When I had the opportunity to enter the burned townhouse and look around, I was not freaked out, like I used to imagine I would be under this circumstance. My thoughts were of relief that Melissa and the pets got out safely and that no one was hurt.

As a footnote, the day of the fire was a reunion of sorts with some of the firemen. A few of these guys were the same guys that came to our townhouse 19 months earlier when Mary had her first Sudden Cardiac Arrest!