Lurie column - awaiting the state of the Union

TITLE: We Await the State of the Union
Today is the day when millions will gather in front of televisions or for the chosen few, live, to hear the annual report addressed to Americans.
As the most well known personality of the day emerges onto the floor in front of the enthusiastic crowd amid applause and words of encouragement, we will be waiting with baited breath.
Very rarely does our senior official grace the media with his presence, but today he will listen to questions and make his opinions clear.
He was silent the week after the Tsunami blitzed Indonesia. He didn't appear before the media for questions and comments when four hurricanes all but swept Florida into the Atlantic.
We saw neither hide nor hair when 28 inches of snow blanketed Ohio.
But today, he emerges to proclaim judgment and to wow us with his wisdom and vision.
Some will cheer, others applaud. Some will scoff, others guffaw.
We will hear the predictions before his appearance, the preliminaries working up to the show as friends and cohorts talk about the difficult times we face. His PR handlers will set the stage and try to minimize our expectations in case of a mediocre performance.
It will be one heckuva show. Many will swoon at the sight; others will leave feeling cheated and disillusioned.
I expect to be wowed. For I believe in his wisdom, vision and seer-like ability. One that comes with years of experience, hard work, and making tough life decisions. I will defend his message and his viewpoint. For I am a red blooded believer. He may appear punch drunk. He may tell us something totally unrealistic, but he is the chosen one and his message is solid gold truth. He speaks for all Americans and for me.
Punxsutawney Phil will emerge on Groundhog's day and tell us the absolute truth. (Did some readers believe I was speaking of someone else, somewhere down East? For shame.) We will know today if winter is almost over or whether we have 6 more weeks to endure.
Anyone who watched animals knows they are accurate weather predictors. Cows lie down when storms approach, snakes seek high ground from floods (and Tsunamis), Ants build up rain dams around their nest. So do Prairie dogs. Swallows fly low before rain, dogs and cats bring their young ones to shelter when the sky is still clear but Dopplar radar starts blipping.
So I believe in the Groundhog. After all, today is also my birthday, so I have an even closer affinity than most.
Maybe we should all sing the official holiday song (to the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic)
Let the scientific fakirs gnash their teeth and stamp with rage--
Let astrologers with crystals wipe such nonsense from the page--
We hail the king of Prophets, who's the world's outstanding Sage--
Today the Groundhog comes!
Glory? Glory to the groundhog,
Glory? Glory to the groundhog,
Glory? Glory to the groundhog,
Today the Prophet comes!
The prediction is cast in stone after we see if Phil's groggy silhouette casts a shadow. Whether spring is just around the corner or winter is destined to blow us around for six more weeks will depend on whether Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow under a bright sun and scampers back into his den for six more weeks of slumber.
Some people challenge whether a beast scared of his own shadow deserves to be treated like royalty, but that's just silly posturing by people who don't understand the critical importance of GroundHog day.
Personally I like the approach being taken by Chuck Wood, the official chairperson of the Committee for the Commercialization of Groundhog day. He is trying to organize a more formal holiday celebration (with a day off for my birthday!). OK, the whole idea started with the Candlemas celebration in Europe, lost its secular heritage as German immigrants moved away from Candles to predict the coming of Spring, and settled on a hedgehog. But we can still work to make this a holiday we can not only be proud of, but take off work for- so we can sit home and read the paper.
Speaking of which, there are those on this page who belittle youngsters, others who challenge elder authority. Both are barely older than Punxsutawney Phil, and combined, barely equal to my age of attainment today. It's so depressing, maybe I'll ask Punxsutawney to shove over and yield a little room in the burrow. Sigh.
Leib Lurie
Leib Lurie is a Troy resident, Optimist Club & Troy Civic Theatre member, CEO of OneCall Now and another year older. You can reach him at oldgroundhog@onecallnow.com

Re: Lurie column Jan 12: Social Security- the crisis that isn't

This year, the Social Security system -- the payroll tax, which brings money in, and the pension program, which sends money out -- will bring in about $180 billion more than it sends out.  It will go on bringing in more than it sends out until 2028, at which point it will begin to draw on the $3.5 trillion surplus it will, by then, have accumulated.  The surplus runs out in 2042, right around the time George W. Bush turns ninety-six.  After that, even if nothing has changed, the system's income will continue to cover 73% of its outgo.  That's using the Social Security Administration's economic and demographic assumptions, which are habitually pessimistic.  Using the assumptions of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the surplus runs out in 2052.  And if one usues the economic growth assumptions that Bush's own budget office uses when it calculates the effects of his own tax cuts, the surplus runs out in -- er, maybe never.  You want a better return?  Have at it!!!  Knock yourself out and invest tons in your own IRA.  However, making the well-being of the old dependent on the luck or skill of their stock picks or mutual-fund choices is foolish.  You obviously didn't loose a dime in the Enron, Tyco, World Com scandals.  The idea behind Social Security is not just that old folks should be entitled to comfort regardless of their personal merits.  It is that none of us, of any age, should be obliged to live in a society where minimal dignity and the minimal decencies are denied to any of our fellow citizens at the end of life. 

Re: Lurie column Jan 12: Social Security- the crisis that isn't

Since JF Holland replied to everyone on tLeib Lurie's list, I will, too.

1. Social Security is and always was intended as insurance, not an "investment." Insurance of any kind has always paid a guaranteed low rate of return. It's not a get rich quick scheme. It's simply a way of guaranteeing that every American who has put in a lifetime of hard work will have at least some income for the basic necessities.
.
2. You want to invest for a higher return? Get an IRA or a 401(k). You'll get a tax break and you can win (or lose your shirt) in any legal investment you want without sinking the rest of us. Bet you lose, relative to what you get from Social Security.

3. The clear intent of the present administration is to bust up the Social Security system, even if it means busting the national treasury in the process. We're talking about trillions in losses that will eventually become trillions in new taxes. This Government borrowing will also drive up the cost of consumer borrowing -- increasing the cost of your mortgage, your car loan, and your credit card debit. And because mortgage rates will go up, home sales and home values will drop. That's going to be part of the George Bush legacy.

4.So far, every household in the U.S. owes several hundred thousand dollars thanks to the debt that President Bush created out of the surplus he inherited. Put that in your IRA and smoke it.

5. The President reminds me of the kind of spoiled brat who has always had people pick up his messes. If he broke his toy, somebody would give him a new toy. When he nearly went broke in the oil business, his daddy's friends bailed him out. Now he's breaking America, and you and I and our children and grandchildren will be picking up his mess for decades to come.

Pass this on, along with the letter it responds to, below.

--Peter Hochstein

In a message dated 1/25/2005 6:14:05 PM Eastern Standard Time, "JF Holland" writes:

>
>  I do remember that the Clinton administration was talking, which is only
>what they ever did about the Social Security problem.  Now, Bush wants to do
>something that makes all kind of sense to me.  I would love to have a better
>return than what the current inefficient bureuacratic (you know what I mean)
>system gives us.
>
>  Your note sounds like socialist drivel to me. ----- Original Message -----
>  From: "Leib Lurie"
>  To: "David Kennard"
>  Cc: "LN - Ellen Lurie" ; "Steve Kirschner"
>; "Al Lurie" ; "Bill Beller"
>; "Scott Cardais" ; "James Mays"
>; "Jim Fitzpatrick" ; "David Kennard"
>; "Jimmy Walker" ; "CW/ Carlos
>Wood" ; "Jeff Billiel" ; "Bob
>Scott" ; "BT/Bob Taylor" ;
>"Peter Hochstein" ; "Susan Smith" ;
>"Karen Lohr" ; "Steve Fields"
>; "TDN Lurie" ;
>; ;
>; ; ;
>"Suzanne Smith" ; "Kerry-Edwards 2004"
>
>  Sent: Monday, January 10, 2005 10:56 PM
>  Subject: Lurie column Jan 12: Social Security- the crisis that isn't
>
>
>  Social Security- the crisis that isn't
>  The Republicans are lining up to make another grab for your wallets. Not
>content with pledging $2,000 per family to pay for our Iraqi incursion; nor
>with committing our children to pay an additional $4,000 per family for the
>debt incurred over the past four years, and with a fatalistic nonchalance
>over the measly $1500 per family in unfunded Medicare drug benefits that
>will kick in next year, The march on Social Security has begun.
>  It's amazing what constitutes a crisis in America. Our President and his
>minions have been barnstorming the country performing daring feats of
>innuendo about Social Security.
>  They are telling us the system is irreparably broken, horribly misshapen,
>and desperately in need of major overhaul. That after seventy years of
>successfully protecting our elderly, that they and our country are on the
>path to wreck and ruin. They make speeches and corral supporters to pledge
>in lockstep to make the necessary corrections.
>  It's a shame and a pity that sums beyond all comprehension are being
>bandied about like wisps of cotton candy.
>  The President is using scare tactics to suggest the Social Security system
>is going broke, and that it cannot survive unless instant changes are
>debated and implemented within the next few months.
>  Let's take a minute and review the facts.
>  The system has enough money to run untouched for 38 years. Assuming a
>continuation of the same lousy economic growth of the past four years. Not
>forever, but not an immediate crucial crisis. With a smidgen better economic
>forecast, 38 years becomes 55 years.
>  If nothing is done, 40-60 years from now, 30% of the annual payout would
>be unfunded. Not great, but certainly not an imminent crisis.
>  That the total difference between a fully funded system and a 30%
>shortfall could be bridged by repealing a minority percentage of the Bush
>tax cuts for the rich.
>  The current 'straw-man' proposals call for allowing workers to set aside
>$1,000 a year into a private retirement program. According to the retirement
>calculator at the www.yourlocalbank.com That sum, increased for interest,
>then decreased by inflation and management fees; would pay for one year of
>retirement. Gee. Wouldn't a gradual rise in retirement age more than offset
>this farcical change?
>  The privatization of social security accounts are assured to be safe,
>secure, rational and logical. In the same way that millions of teachers and
>UPS drivers have had to delay their retirement dates because of stock market
>losses from regulated, safe, and secure firms like Worldcom and Enron.
>  The fees for managing private funds, based on fees at 401K accounts today,
>would be equal to 25% of the projected social security gap. Our inefficient,
>government bureaucrats spend less to manage our social security system than
>the fine tuned, well-honed financial institutions that run the stock market
>and the New York Stock Exchange
>  Allowing diversion of half the social security fund to some unknown
>never-never land would create a very real and present crisis. The diversion
>would require more borrowing by the government. More debt. More need to sell
>government bonds to the governments that hate us, hoping they'll not ask for
>higher interest.
>  Uncontrolled government spending by conservative Republicans is rippling
>through a world economy. The dollar's value has plunged over 35% in four
>years as government spending has climbed almost the same amount in the same
>period. Oil is more expensive and so what if borrowing to fund our deficit
>costs more. Today's voters won't care. Stick the bill to the future
>generations.
>  On the other hand, maybe the idea has merit, because people, not the
>government would have final say in the distribution and disbursement of
>their accumulated wealth in the alternative social security system. So
>someday the cash could be passed on to a Gay partner.
>  I had a boss years ago who said you can pile a heap of manure on someone's
>head if you stick a peppermint in his mouth. We worked for a company that
>went belly-up as management got rich and the stockholders went broke. This
>government seems to feel it can pile debt on our heads and toss out
>privatization gravitas with smug and flip superiority. It still doesn't
>smell minty fresh.
>  Leib Lurie
>  Leib Lurie is a Troy resident, Optimist Club member and Serial Software
>Entrepreneur. You can reach him at Leib@Lurie.net
>
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>----
>
>
>
>

Re: Lurie column Jan 12: Social Security- the crisis that isn't

I do remember that the Clinton administration was talking, which is only
what they ever did about the Social Security problem. Now, Bush wants to do
something that makes all kind of sense to me. I would love to have a better
return than what the current inefficient bureuacratic (you know what I mean)
system gives us.

Your note sounds like socialist drivel to me. ----- Original Message -----
From: "Leib Lurie"
To: "David Kennard"
Cc: "LN - Ellen Lurie" ; "Steve Kirschner"
; "Al Lurie" ; "Bill Beller"
; "Scott Cardais" ; "James Mays"
; "Jim Fitzpatrick" ; "David Kennard"
; "Jimmy Walker" ; "CW/ Carlos
Wood" ; "Jeff Billiel" ; "Bob
Scott" ; "BT/Bob Taylor" ;
"Peter Hochstein" ; "Susan Smith" ;
"Karen Lohr" ; "Steve Fields"
; "TDN Lurie" ;
; ;
; ; ;
"Suzanne Smith" ; "Kerry-Edwards 2004"

Sent: Monday, January 10, 2005 10:56 PM
Subject: Lurie column Jan 12: Social Security- the crisis that isn't


Social Security- the crisis that isn't
The Republicans are lining up to make another grab for your wallets. Not
content with pledging $2,000 per family to pay for our Iraqi incursion; nor
with committing our children to pay an additional $4,000 per family for the
debt incurred over the past four years, and with a fatalistic nonchalance
over the measly $1500 per family in unfunded Medicare drug benefits that
will kick in next year, The march on Social Security has begun.
It's amazing what constitutes a crisis in America. Our President and his
minions have been barnstorming the country performing daring feats of
innuendo about Social Security.
They are telling us the system is irreparably broken, horribly misshapen,
and desperately in need of major overhaul. That after seventy years of
successfully protecting our elderly, that they and our country are on the
path to wreck and ruin. They make speeches and corral supporters to pledge
in lockstep to make the necessary corrections.
It's a shame and a pity that sums beyond all comprehension are being
bandied about like wisps of cotton candy.
The President is using scare tactics to suggest the Social Security system
is going broke, and that it cannot survive unless instant changes are
debated and implemented within the next few months.
Let's take a minute and review the facts.
The system has enough money to run untouched for 38 years. Assuming a
continuation of the same lousy economic growth of the past four years. Not
forever, but not an immediate crucial crisis. With a smidgen better economic
forecast, 38 years becomes 55 years.
If nothing is done, 40-60 years from now, 30% of the annual payout would
be unfunded. Not great, but certainly not an imminent crisis.
That the total difference between a fully funded system and a 30%
shortfall could be bridged by repealing a minority percentage of the Bush
tax cuts for the rich.
The current 'straw-man' proposals call for allowing workers to set aside
$1,000 a year into a private retirement program. According to the retirement
calculator at the www.yourlocalbank.com That sum, increased for interest,
then decreased by inflation and management fees; would pay for one year of
retirement. Gee. Wouldn't a gradual rise in retirement age more than offset
this farcical change?
The privatization of social security accounts are assured to be safe,
secure, rational and logical. In the same way that millions of teachers and
UPS drivers have had to delay their retirement dates because of stock market
losses from regulated, safe, and secure firms like Worldcom and Enron.
The fees for managing private funds, based on fees at 401K accounts today,
would be equal to 25% of the projected social security gap. Our inefficient,
government bureaucrats spend less to manage our social security system than
the fine tuned, well-honed financial institutions that run the stock market
and the New York Stock Exchange
Allowing diversion of half the social security fund to some unknown
never-never land would create a very real and present crisis. The diversion
would require more borrowing by the government. More debt. More need to sell
government bonds to the governments that hate us, hoping they'll not ask for
higher interest.
Uncontrolled government spending by conservative Republicans is rippling
through a world economy. The dollar's value has plunged over 35% in four
years as government spending has climbed almost the same amount in the same
period. Oil is more expensive and so what if borrowing to fund our deficit
costs more. Today's voters won't care. Stick the bill to the future
generations.
On the other hand, maybe the idea has merit, because people, not the
government would have final say in the distribution and disbursement of
their accumulated wealth in the alternative social security system. So
someday the cash could be passed on to a Gay partner.
I had a boss years ago who said you can pile a heap of manure on someone's
head if you stick a peppermint in his mouth. We worked for a company that
went belly-up as management got rich and the stockholders went broke. This
government seems to feel it can pile debt on our heads and toss out
privatization gravitas with smug and flip superiority. It still doesn't
smell minty fresh.
Leib Lurie
Leib Lurie is a Troy resident, Optimist Club member and Serial Software
Entrepreneur. You can reach him at Leib@Lurie.net



----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

FWD: Lurie column Jan 26: Was Dr. King speaking for Baghdad?

TITLE: Was Dr. King speaking for Baghdad?
Sunday there will be an historic election in Iraq. Between now and then dozens of people will be killed in the escalating violence between the factions hoping to run Iraq. An American spokesperson reported that one of the weekend bombers were part of a larger conspiracy. Forty years ago, another American, born Malcolm Little, who's father was killed by gangsters and mother was turned away from medical treatment she couldn't afford. The young man spoke eloquently about justice and freedom.
"And when you see them coming up with that kind of conspiracy, let them know your eyes are open. And let them know you -- something else that's wide open too. It's got to be the ballot or the bullet. The ballot or the bullet. If you're afraid to use an expression like that, you should get on out of the country. Look at it the way it is. What alibis do they use, since they control Congress and the Senate? No, look at that thing the way it is. They have got a con game going on, a political con game, and you and I are in the middle."
I saw that man, now Malcolm X, shot and die that day just a few blocks from my home. He took a shotgun blast to the chest and then two more gunmen jumped forward and blasted away. Deadly violence up close is both terrifying and horrific.
Just 18 months earlier, Dr. King addressed 300,000 marchers in Washington with his most famous speech. Many of us remember the ending paragraphs of his "I Have Dream" soliloquy. Yet few remember the opening lines, where King evoked the decades of oppression that led to the march. The parallels between these two forty year old speeches and the violence tearing Iraq asunder is too close to be merely coincidental.
Looking ahead to the elections this week, I have taken King's memorable words, eliminated a few sentences, and changed the word Negro to IRAQI. I hope this may help many of us understand the festering hatred bubbling over into violence in Iraq as the Sunni's and the Shiites switch power. Remember, just one word was changed.
"The life of the IRAQI is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. the IRAQI finds himself an exile in his own land.
America has given the IRAQI people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the IRAQI. This sweltering summer of the IRAQI's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Those who hope that the IRAQI needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the IRAQI is granted his citizenship rights.
The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the IRAQI community�[whose people] have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: I have a dream that one day even a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
This is our hope. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. "
King ended, "Let Freedom Ring". For our troops on duty and the future of Iraq; let's hope Sunday CAN be the start of a new era of peace and freedoms.
Leib Lurie is a Troy resident, Optimist Club member and Serial Software Entrepreneur. You can reach him at Leib@Lurie.net

If Dr. King were alive today

I took Dr. King's "I Have Dream speech, eliminated a few sentences, and changed the word Negro to Iraqi.
Just one word was changed.

Amazing.

The life of the IRAQI is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. the IRAQI finds himself an exile in his own land.
America has given the IRAQI people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the IRAQI. This sweltering summer of the IRAQI's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Those who hope that the IRAQI needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the IRAQI is granted his citizenship rights.
The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. \Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the IRAQI community�[whose people] have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: I have a dream that one day even a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
This is our hope. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old IRAQI spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Lurie column Wed Jan 19th- A dime for your thoughts

Leib Lurie's Column for TDN: To run WEDNESDAY,
TITLE: Not One Dime - A thought for Thursday
Monday we had the chance to remember a true American hero. One who spoke for justice, freedom, equality and dignity for all people. Martin Luther King spoke for the oppressed, the unemployed, those denied an education, citizens discriminated against because of the color of their skin. He had a vision that someday all peoples would be able to vote, and vote for meaningful difference. His speech on the Mall in Washington is best remembered for the final paragraphs outlining his dreams for his children. Forty Two years later, much has been accomplished. yet much remains to be done.
Tomorrow, on the other end of that Mall, taking a pledge on his Grand Mothers' bible, George Bush will start his last term in office. 150,000 soldiers at risk in Iraq will hope there is a way out. Forty Two million Americans without health insurance will hope the bitter cold doesn't stick in their chest. But my analogies pale in comparison to those from the Rev JC Carr of Oklahoma who writes…
"When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if your deceptions are justified because you are doing God's will, and that your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are some of us who have given our lives to teaching and preaching the faith who believe that this is not only not moral, but immoral.
When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, built the United Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral.
When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.
When you wink at the torture of prisoners, and deprive so-called "enemy combatants" of the rules of the Geneva convention, which your own country helped to establish and insists that other countries follow, you are doing something immoral.
When you fail to veto a single spending bill, but ask us to pay for a war with no exit strategy and no end in sight, creating an enormous deficit that hangs like a great millstone around the necks of our children, you are doing something immoral.
When you cause most of the rest of the world to hate a country that was once the most loved country in the world, and act like it doesn't matter what others think of us, only what God thinks of you, you have done something immoral.
When you use hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out record numbers of evangelical voters, and use the Constitution as a tool of discrimination, you are doing something immoral.
When you dismantle countless environmental laws designed to protect the earth which is God's gift to us all, so that the corporations that bought you and paid for your favors will make higher profits while our children breathe dirty air and live in a toxic world, you have done something immoral. The earth belongs to the Lord, not Halliburton.
When you tell people that you intend to run and govern as a "compassionate conservative," using the word which is the essence of all religious faith -- "compassion" -- and then show no compassion for anyone who disagrees with you, and no patience with those who cry to you for help, you are doing something immoral.
And believing that one has never made a mistake is the mark of a deluded man, not a man of faith.
How many wars does it take to know that too many people have died?
Time to sing, and to pray, and refuse to participate in the madness. My generation finally stopped a tragic war. You can too!
That's why tomorrow is "Not One Dime Day"
Tens of millions of people, in protest to the Iraqi policies, asks those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq to speak up with a 24-hour boycott of all spending.
For 24 hours, please don't spend a dime. No gasoline, necessities or impulse purchases. Please do what you can to shut the economy down (or at least delay it for a day.
The object is simple. Remind the people in power that the war in Iraq is immoral and illegal; that they are responsible for starting it and that it is their responsibility to stop it.
This is about supporting the troops. The politicians put the troops in harm's way.
There's no rally to attend. No marching to do. No left or right wing agenda to rant about. On "Not One Dime Day" you take action by doing nothing. Open your mouth by keeping your wallet closed. Tell our politicians of their moral responsibility to end the war in Iraq and give America back to the people.
Leib Lurie
Leib Lurie is a Troy resident, Optimist Club member and Serial Software Entrepreneur. You can reach him at Leib@Lurie.net

Lurie column Jan 12: Social Security- the crisis that isn't

Social Security- the crisis that isn't
The Republicans are lining up to make another grab for your wallets. Not content with pledging $2,000 per family to pay for our Iraqi incursion; nor with committing our children to pay an additional $4,000 per family for the debt incurred over the past four years, and with a fatalistic nonchalance over the measly $1500 per family in unfunded Medicare drug benefits that will kick in next year, The march on Social Security has begun.
It's amazing what constitutes a crisis in America. Our President and his minions have been barnstorming the country performing daring feats of innuendo about Social Security.
They are telling us the system is irreparably broken, horribly misshapen, and desperately in need of major overhaul. That after seventy years of successfully protecting our elderly, that they and our country are on the path to wreck and ruin. They make speeches and corral supporters to pledge in lockstep to make the necessary corrections.
It's a shame and a pity that sums beyond all comprehension are being bandied about like wisps of cotton candy.
The President is using scare tactics to suggest the Social Security system is going broke, and that it cannot survive unless instant changes are debated and implemented within the next few months.
Let's take a minute and review the facts.
The system has enough money to run untouched for 38 years. Assuming a continuation of the same lousy economic growth of the past four years. Not forever, but not an immediate crucial crisis. With a smidgen better economic forecast, 38 years becomes 55 years.
If nothing is done, 40-60 years from now, 30% of the annual payout would be unfunded. Not great, but certainly not an imminent crisis.
That the total difference between a fully funded system and a 30% shortfall could be bridged by repealing a minority percentage of the Bush tax cuts for the rich.
The current 'straw-man' proposals call for allowing workers to set aside $1,000 a year into a private retirement program. According to the retirement calculator at the www.yourlocalbank.com That sum, increased for interest, then decreased by inflation and management fees; would pay for one year of retirement. Gee. Wouldn't a gradual rise in retirement age more than offset this farcical change?
The privatization of social security accounts are assured to be safe, secure, rational and logical. In the same way that millions of teachers and UPS drivers have had to delay their retirement dates because of stock market losses from regulated, safe, and secure firms like Worldcom and Enron.
The fees for managing private funds, based on fees at 401K accounts today, would be equal to 25% of the projected social security gap. Our inefficient, government bureaucrats spend less to manage our social security system than the fine tuned, well-honed financial institutions that run the stock market and the New York Stock Exchange
Allowing diversion of half the social security fund to some unknown never-never land would create a very real and present crisis. The diversion would require more borrowing by the government. More debt. More need to sell government bonds to the governments that hate us, hoping they'll not ask for higher interest.
Uncontrolled government spending by conservative Republicans is rippling through a world economy. The dollar's value has plunged over 35% in four years as government spending has climbed almost the same amount in the same period. Oil is more expensive and so what if borrowing to fund our deficit costs more. Today's voters won't care. Stick the bill to the future generations.
On the other hand, maybe the idea has merit, because people, not the government would have final say in the distribution and disbursement of their accumulated wealth in the alternative social security system. So someday the cash could be passed on to a Gay partner.
I had a boss years ago who said you can pile a heap of manure on someone's head if you stick a peppermint in his mouth. We worked for a company that went belly-up as management got rich and the stockholders went broke. This government seems to feel it can pile debt on our heads and toss out privatization gravitas with smug and flip superiority. It still doesn't smell minty fresh.
Leib Lurie
Leib Lurie is a Troy resident, Optimist Club member and Serial Software Entrepreneur. You can reach him at Leib@Lurie.net

Earth, Air, Fire and water

Earth, Air, Fire and Water
Earthquakes, Tornadoes, Firestorms and flooding are the tragic manifestation of the four elements.

Our flags are flying at half mast this week in recognition of the unimaginable Asian Tsunami disaster. Two former Presidents, Republican Bush the elder and Democrat Clinton have accepted the unprecedented challenge of raising billions of dollars to accompany the Hundreds of millions already pledged for rebuilding homes, businesses and lives for the two million survivors mourning the loss of 150,000 relatives, friends and neighbors.
The waters swept in from the sea at subsonic speed, rearing up to 30 feet tall and hundreds of miles wide. A torrential wave thundered ashore wherever the ocean met land and barreled inland with such force as to rip open miles of concrete pavement eight inches deep like a kid dragging a rake at the beach.
Tens of thousands of buildings were ripped from their foundations like trailers in a tornado; but along hundreds of miles of coastline simultaneously. The power of the 1974 Xenia tornado extended for just 100 yards along a ten mile trail, leaving 33 dead. 148 tornados swept through the Midwest in those wretched 48 hours. The Tsunami in Sumatra unleashed 10,000 times as much power last week.
The Dayton epoch flood of 1913 killed 400 people as Dayton rivers rose fifty feet in fifty hours. More water flowed through Dayton than pours over Niagara Falls in a month. Trolleys were swept off their tracks, horses drowned by the score. Dirty flood waters scoured out paths beneath buildings, making basements twice as deep, till buildings just keeled over. Recalculating it for current value, the reconstruction here in Miami Valley cost $1.7 Trillion dollars.
The Tsunami brought more water ashore in moments across each ten miles of shoreline than the ten day Dayton flood. Yet the tidal wave in Thailand alone was hundreds of times wider than the Dayton Flood wave. Daytonians had several days of loose warnings, and hours of warning that the levees were about to breach. Tens of thousands evacuated, but thousands remained, and four hundred drowned or died of hypothermia, from gas fires and collapsing structures.
Maybe the analogies are impossible to comprehend and immeasurably tragic to imagine. Let's draw another analogy. Imagine the normal flow of the Great Miami River as filling a drinking straw. The Dayton Flood would be equivalent to the flow through a fire hose. The Indonesian inundation would be the size of the River today, at managed flood stage.
The tragic death of 150,000 people drowned in moments or swept out to sea will haunt the survivors and our collective consciousness deeply. Death and numbers killed are always at the top of the headlines. 150,000 is a hard number to grasp. Does it make sense to think of it as three times the length of the 50,000 names on the Vietnam Wall? Can you try and picture everyone at the Strawberry Festival Saturday at noon suddenly swept downstream and drowned with just 30 seconds of warning?
While death is tallied, instant and final; survival is vagarious, perennial and tenuous; yet much harder to deal with.
The dead across the Bay of Bengal won't have to seek water, food, shelter, clothing and jobs. They won't have to comfort the injured, care for the orphans, re-build lives, homes, communities cities and infrastructure. The Dead will not have to see the barren landscape formerly vibrant villages, harbors, and farms. The deceased will not need to scramble and scrape through desolation and find constant reminders of their loss. The dead are gone. But the living are those that need help. Serious help.
The RedCross has already raised almost $100 million - and needs cash, not goods.
via phone - 1-800-HELP-NOW
via online - donate securely at www.redcross.org
via mail - mail contributions to American Red Cross chapter
1314 Barnhart Road Troy OH 45373 Phone- (937) 332-1414
Or you may choose to focus your help for children. UNICEF is working on an $81 million emergency campaign directed at the prevention and treatment of malaria, water-borne diseases (cholera, dysentery, diarrhea), measles, tetanus, and acute respiratory diseases. UNICEF will provide basic drugs and supplies to cover over three million people including the 1.5 million children in the region. www.unicef.org
IBM has sent dozens of engineers and over a million in systems to track, trace and expedite relief. Compared with John H. Patterson's mobilization of all facilities and every available employee for the Dayton flood, it may not be much, but hundreds of global companies are coming together to offer relief with their goods and services. For example, Troy's OneCallNow has partnered with the Christian Emergency Network, along with dozens of churches and synagogues to help call tens of thousands of people for help and to coordinate relief and donations.
Leib Lurie is a Troy resident, Optimist Club & Troy Civic Theatre member and CEO of OneCall Now. You can reach him at Leib@Lurie.net