Nero Fiddled while Rome Burned

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. It’s an old story about decadent leaders playing around and more concerned with their own trappings of power and personal satisfaction than doing what’s right for the people. Rome burned to the ground in AD 64 – while Nero was purported to be singing to show off his artisan qualities. Although the fiddle was still 1400 years in the future, fiddling around became a quality blamed on errant nobility after the fire. Possibly his grandiose plans to rebuild the city in his image, a project that dragged on for decades, thereupon promoting another saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.

That latter saying came to mind when trying to drive around our fair city’s 300 day culvert re-building detour, but drove home the outstanding point that 2 years ago this week, our bright and polished troops invaded Iraq to seize the fictitious, but then stridently “proven” caches of WMD’s, and bring Democracy to the region.
Nero fiddled – comes to mind when Congress votes an additional $181 billion in tax cuts for the rich and untaxed last week; while waving the flag of victory for pledging to cut $125 billion the same day. Even in roman numerals, that leaves a bigger deficit of LVI billion dollars.

Nero fiddled away. As the US death toll rises above 1510; and the Iraqi death toll reaches a reported (but ‘untracked’ by US) number of 19,457; our Nero appoints as UN Ambassador a man who repeatedly urged the US to pull out of the United Nations, and to eliminate the Security Council that has prevented or minimized 18 wars, because ‘there is only one country that matters, us”. Wow. Not even a hint of sarcasm from that neocon.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Nearly $9 billion of money spent on Iraqi reconstruction is unaccounted for because of inefficiencies and bad management. An inspector general's report said the U.S.-led administration that ran Iraq until June 2004 is unable to account for the funds.

"Severe inefficiencies and poor management" by the Coalition Provisional Authority has left auditors with no guarantee the money was properly used," the report said. Yet the administration has requested another $81 billion for this year to follow the past cash down the rat hole. Insurgents are attacking convoys, trucks and outposts with impunity and anger as electricity and basic services are still not repaired, while malnutrition and disease parry with bazookas for the highest mortality causes in Baghdad.

Nero fiddled as Rome burned. Congress and the President flew back to Washington Sunday to pass Terri’s law. Although unable and unwilling to even address the $724 billion in unfunded Medicare benefits for millions of Americans, many of whom were cognizant and possibly mentally awake when they re-elected this group of profligate spenders, Congress spent 6 hours debating why the Constitutionally granted powers of border defense justifies crossing the Florida border to overturn the Florida Supreme court and work to keep pumping glucose solution into the inert body of a cortex dead individual. The situation is sad, the circumstances tragic, but the cross-country heroic theatrics to please a narrow constituency bring Nero to mind.

Nero celebrated the murder of his mother by staging yet wilder orgies and by creating two new festivals of chariot-racing and athletics. He also staged musical contests, which gave him further chance to demonstrate in public his talent for singing while accompanying himself on the lyre. In an age when actors and performers were seen as something unsavory, it was a moral outrage to have an emperor performing on stage.

In today’s shrinking electronic planet, the whole world’s a stage. One where our President appears with his very much alive mother to talk about the approaching bankruptcy of Social Security, and dances around the simple solutions that elude a leader flat out determined to persecute the poor and reward the rich.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Our President is on round II of his 60 city wave-to-the-people-tour. Our dollar is Falling like a rock- making foreign investors shun our bonds. Our budget is racing off a deficit cliff. Our environmental laws are being shredded as the EPA condones millions of tons of Mercury poison to continue for decades. The Artic Wilderness will not be paved, just criss-crossed with gravel roads.

No, Rome wasn’t re-built in a day, and at this rate, will we ever be able to rebuild our global reputation, stature or economy?

March Madness is upon is

The committee has made their decision, the 64 teams have been announced. The world will soon start to cheer, to wager, and to argue, but they will all get the recognition and fame they deserve.

The teams have worked all winter, grueling hours of practice, aggressive competition. Physical and mental preparation, practice, effort and results. They are all winners, even if not the top seed.

Their coaches and managers believe in them. They brag to the press and fans about their teams; often while needing to be arbitrators of conflicts and disciplinarians behind the scenes. Many of them have been there, done that. Others never had what it took to be a champion themselves; but all excel at bringing out the best in those who will perform on the boards.

The divisions are artificial attempts at segregating and spreading top talent around to maximize the excitement and offer more chances to win, and more brackets to let others win (we can’t call it losing), because at this level, everyone is a winner. Every team member, even those that warm the team bench for the big one will have the satisfaction of being there when it happened. Being part of a winning team is a feeling of overwhelming achievement that comes from being part of that ethereal immeasurable experience of sportsmanship, teamwork, togetherness and partnership.

The media frenzy will build to a fever pitch. The gym floor will rock with hip-hop music beating a rhythmic tune as fans bob and weave, cheer and laugh. The bleachers will be pounding. The rafters shaking. The rush is on.

Parents, siblings and friends will be intermingled through the crowd – all cheering for their players and teams. The cameras will flash in the cavernous hall, ineffectually attempting to strobe freeze the racing, blurring motion.

In the hallways, Vendors will be hawking memorial, commemorative, gaudy and the merely colorful remembrances in 100% cotton. Funky looking hats, collectors wearing dozens of different enamel team pins, glossy yearbooks, souvenir program guides. The American Dietetic Association would do more than frown, they would outright blanch at the unhealthy assortment of salt and nitrites wrapped in white bread and slathered with a red or yellow condiment that our government and the Heinz corporation has sought to classify as a vegetable serving. Maybe the purple colored version has more fresh tomatoes.

But the real action will come on the floor. I love to see the imaginative plays that separate the mundane from the superior. I know folks who just love to see colorful costumes amid the backdrops of action.

Some teams seem to be better at the long ball, while others rack up points in the close and short game. Some teams have a few really good players with a supporting cast; while the ones I like are more balanced and even, with everyone contributing to the win.

March Madness is more than a few teams playing a game. It’s an obsession for handicappers, and a driving force that generates post-tournament discussions, debates, challenges and retro-vision (the new name for hindsight).

This Saturday, the 64 Regional Destination Imagination teams, many sponsored by the Troy Optimist Club, will meet at Edison Community College to show us their stuff. The marathon day will start at 8 and end with awards in the gym at 5pm. Since admission is free, come on over and see teams create a radio drama complete with outrageous commercial. Experience a serendipitous event that transforms their invention. Build a structure to hold enormous weight. Design and build a robot. It will be a fascinating show of creativity, imagination, science, engineering, drama and theatrics.

The winners will go on to State competition in April, and from there to the world tournament in Tennesee in May. In this event, judges look for teamwork not stardom. Creativity, not jumping prowess determines the winner. Intelligent problem solving counts for more than three point foul shots. A cohesive theatrical hand-off wins more points than a dribbling pass. It’s poetry in motion, song and dance in fluid action. It’s Destination Imagination. What great sport!

Thankfully, there won’t be a basketball in sight. It will be an event to remember.

Hey, what did you think I was talking about?

Heroes come in all shapes and types

As a child I loved to sneak comics under the bed sheets after bedtime and read the stories about super powers, x-ray vision , invulnerability, flying faster than a speeding bullet and leaping tall buildings one bound at a time.

Marvel and DC published a wide repertoire of stories and characters that pursued and punished the evil-doers, vanquished criminals, and protected humankind from the ravishes of superhuman villains, alien invaders, surreal costumed terrorists and protected our planet from mayhem in all forms. It was an exciting time to have an over-active imagination, and a fun way to escape the mundane.

Not all heroes are dressed in costumes that spring from special rings, or store street clothes in a pouch under the cape. Not all heroes have a discrete butler to protect the secrets of the bat cave, or bemuse the repercussions of radioactivity (a common theme then).

Heroes of today�s kids come in a much wider array of sizes, ages, relationships and performance. Today�s heroes bring salvation, work tirelessly for justice, bear the scars of unlikely fame, handle intense personal pressure and make the selfless sacrifices that differentiate the masses from those celebrated at Mass.

In the past weeks it has been a distinct pleasure and honour to hear 29 of Troy�s teenagers give short oratory speeches at our Optimist Club luncheons. For forty years, the Optimist club has sponsored the annual Oratory contest for teenagers, for many of the recent years Troy Junior High School English teacher Ms. Pat Morris urges her students to participate as a way to soar beyond the classroom boundaries and stretch their imagination, vocabulary, dreams and ambitions. She helps hundreds of children work hard to calm the stomach flutters of public speaking, and massage their words into phrases of passion. This years� theme was �My Hero is�� Ms. Morris wasn�t named by any of the teens as one of their heroes, but probably should have been.

None of this set of teens named a specific teacher as their hero. Instead they chose as their heroes a diverse range of characters.

One retold the story of a grandfather born in Canada, interned during WWII, deported after the war to a country he never knew, battling back and rising to become a secret service agent for the country that threw him across the ocean for his heritage.

Selecting the hero of Schindlers� list, another student recounted the thousands of lives saved by an unlikely hero in another Axis country in that terrible conflagration.

A decade later, one girl thanked Rosa Parks for being too tired after a long day at work to give up her seat, and starting a movement that unseated decades of discrimination in the deep South.

Many girls thanked their mothers for being their heroines. In an age where parental oversight is ridiculed and scorned, these young women each fervently felt her mother has and will continue to make an unforgettable impression on them for courage, hard work, multi-tasking or having the strength to keep a family together in a society where separation and discourse are becoming the norm.

One young lady passionately pointed to Jesus as the primary hero in her book, quoting from several books of the bible to make her point. His teachings, leadership and sacrifices made him more than a story, someone she urged us to emulate and thank.

A few speakers referenced sisters, brothers or relatives suffering from the ravages of disease, or the challenging recovery from near fatal experiences. We learned how different people heroically face these issues and draw strength from the pain, and grow stronger mentally as their body fails.

One pointed her speech at the soldiers serving our country in Iraq. This week the US body count reached 1,500; with 10,000 injuries. Safely ensconced in Troy, she reeled off statistics of death and injury that have or will affect one in ten Americans sent to Iraq. These servicemen are heroes to her (and to many of us).

Listening to her, and the others, I felt that we might be better served in the world with these bright and young viewpoints guiding some of the Economic, Domestic and International decisions that purportedly more experienced politicians fumble.

Tomorrow at seven, at the Hayner Cultural Center, the best of these youngsters from throughout the Miami Valley will compete for scholarships � a significant mark of self determination for success � by explaining who their heroes are.

Heroes can be physically challenged, overcome challenges of discrimination, challenge beliefs, or preserve their beliefs in the face of challenges. These teens all rose to the challenge of the contest, and I challenge you to come hear them speak.

 

Leib Lurie is a Troy resident, Optimist Club member and CEO of OneCallNow.com You can comment on his columns at llurie.blogspot.com

Lurie column Mar 2nd: Trophy cases highlight the wrong things

TITLE: Trophy Cases highlight the wrong things.

The Oscar ceremony saw dozens of people fawning over a golden coloured trophy mounted on walnut. Celebrating their win, and thanking everyone from their creator on down to the yard boy.

The Academy isn�t the only ones giving out trophies. I have been visiting schools recently. Every school seems to be trying to outdo the next in the size, depth, breadth and polish of their school trophy cases.

Miles of glass, protecting varnished walnut, Oak and Cherry wood plaques. Sturdy braces propping up gold plated tin and silver plated bronze. Leaping athletes frozen in motion. Swooping miniature balls, doll-sized tennis racquets, brass plaques screwed on and on with new names, dates, achievements and win-loss records.

There are schools where the cases are an afterthought, lined up in the hallways. Other buildings where the architect designed them into the walls and created gleaming temples of honor.

They show off our students, their achievements and their victories.

But rarely, so rarely, do they highlight the real reason the building exists. To educate, nurture and grow children into thinking, thoughtful, knowledgeable adults. Athletics are important, and they certainly draw crowds, but academic excellence is far more important to our children and their success than a glancing blow with fame from a sunk basket or a 30-love tennis match.

Marching bands require dedication, musicianship, teamwork and panache; they seek trophies and prizes to stack in the music room (few schools seem to set aside the prime aggressive sports trophy cases for something as meek and mundane as music).

Over the past fifty years Troy has sent 15,000 graduates on to college, jobs, careers, and families. Only a handful ever went on to win athletic stardom or fame. Ferguson? Brewer? Great athletes- but nary a career in sports.

Where are the academic awards? Why do we barely glance at contests of will and froth at the mouth over battles of brawn?

Few trophy cases are set aside for Future Cities competition winners, Creative Problem Solving teams, Science Olympiad achievers, World class Destination Imagination winning teams, Brave and erudite Oratory Contest members. Last week, my wife�s Future City team won five of the top 12 honors; and left Columbus elated and excited. Will the trophy find a home in a case packed with football, basketball and cheerleading brick-a-brack? Hasn�t before, probably won�t now.

On Monday ten Junior High School boys, who had worked for months creating and polishing speeches about their heroes, presented them to the community. The stands weren�t packed. The bleachers weren�t filled. The venue wasn�t crowded. Only our Optimist club, their parents and the adjudicators applauded their efforts. No one waved the �we�re number one� foam finger. No cheerleaders bounced around to egg them on. The winners got medals, the participants plaques, but the band didn�t play at halftime.

Why do our schools spend most of their money on education, but most of the glory goes to those with often mere physical prowess?

Last month Congress received a �bare-bones� budget proposal, one that seeks to slash and eliminate the fat. 150 government programs are declared as irrelevant failures. Almost a third of them focused on academic education programs. Yet all of Title IX monies for school athletics were retained.

In fact, the INCREASE proposed for military weapons and programs is more than the TOTAL budget allocated for K-8 education programs by the federal programs.

Last week, the Troy Board of Ed voted to seek a renewal levy on the May ballot; it will cost taxpayers far less money than it did at first, because as inflation raises income for many, and the tax base expands, the net amount from the levy is mandated to be stagnant. Yet even a stagnant sum is vital to keeping our classes going.

We have a great sweatshirt at home, it says �What if the schools got all the money they need, and the air force had to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber?� And wouldn�t it be great to have academic excellence cheered and applauded and fawned over like a racing halfback? Oh well.

It seems that the concept of getting physical to win trophy case space at the local level holds sway in higher government too. It�s a shame that we can�t focus more on the importance of fighting with our brains and wits; rather than with guns and bombs. Diplomacy and Statesmanship are the government�s equivalent of academic excellence. While bombs and guns, are the federal counterpart of sports teams.

Our American focus on cheering for physical achievements of glory means subjugating truly vital intellectual activities to the nooks and crannies of the trophy cases and backwoods of Governmental priorities.  Go Team! Rah Rah Ree- Kick em in the knee! Rah Rah Rass, Kick em in the other knee!

Leib Lurie

Leib Lurie is a Troy resident, Optimist Club member and Serial Software Entrepreneur. You can reach him at Leib@Lurie.net