Lurie column June 2: Crazier than some, saner than many

TITLE: Festival time is crazy- but saner here than most

Friday starts Troy�s annual journey into chaos and confusion. A carefully orchestrated event that brings as many as 300,000 visitors to our city of 25,000. All in the name of Strawberries. What an amazing concept- and one that has not only defied common wisdom and changes, but thrived on them. No booze, no beer, no mechanized rides. No side show freaks or diving donkeys. No gambling games or carnival hucksters. Just a weekend of crazy contests, healthy competition, friendly neighbors, and a weekend to show off our town.

The bronze statues will draw people off the levy to the square. Hopefully a few hundred will enter the Optimist Club photo contest and win prizes, have their pictures published and help us earn funds for a few permanent statues in town.

Two Thousand Harley Davidson Hogs will ride their two wheeled beasts onto Waco field surrounded by bi-wing (don�t even hint about bi-sexual there this weekend) airplanes. Both curators and bikers are going greyer. Oh well.

Many friends and family hate the Strawberry festival. They blithely ignore the economic impact on the community, where the 162 non-profit groups in Miami County seek to raise funds for their organizations, good works, philanthropy and programs. A few of the members in each of these organizations find ways to escape from Troy this weekend, and leave the work to the rest of us. Thankfully volunteerism is a strong inbred trait for many in the community and it shows.

The Festival parade kickoff Saturday brings out the best in Midwest living. Bands, floats, cars, clowns, music, horses, kings and queens, and politicians� (well, mostly the best in the midwest). 

I spent Memorial Day in New York City, where 300,000 people represent a typical busy street corner day in midtown. The holiday has ebbed in small towns and large, even as we have more men than ever to commemorate. Many shops were open, streets were busy, many office building doormen were omnipresent as if it was a normal Monday. Shoppers and gawkers outnumbered office workers, but not by much. A few flags were in evidence, many just decorative bunting around sale posters and newspaper ads.

New York is full of contradictions. Fashion conscious haute couture model wanna-bees strutted their stuff. Parents with designer strollers that probably cost more than my first car, coddling youngsters with outfits beyond my credit limit that will be outgrown before they get home. New York is NOT Troy. I felt only a little self conscious in my Goodwill Nautica Polo shirt ($1.50 on sale).

An Indian foursome (dot not feather) were breathlessly recapping their adventures at the Statue of Liberty, but this was clearly overshadowed by their huge plastic bags of loot from Times Square. Amazing, one works for a US outsource firm, managing Indian customer service agents � who probably answered the phone when Macy�s called his bank to check the credit card they used to buy �American� goods made elsewhere, supported by staffers in India, purchased by tourists to America, gawking at our symbols on Peace and Freedom as they rushed back from the ferry to do more shopping on this solemn day of remembrance to America�s fallen � Memorial Day.

The purpose of Memorial Day gets vastly overshadowed in Troy by the festival that follows close at hand, and in New York by almost everything else. The holiday had the feel of a typical Saturday in the big Apple. Homeless people surrounded by their noxious but precious possessions staked out doorways and loading docks. Street musicians eight stories underground plying their audiences in subway concourses, one trio�s sign said �music for donations- we help reduce your stress, you help reduce ours.� The trombone player was wearing a Vietnam era navy patch.

An eight year old was drumming along in rhythm on a trashcan. Using two small American flags on sticks as drums. His parents had taken him to the Battery Park Memorial Service The wreath thrown into the NY harbor after the service was saluted by plumes from two fireboats; but overshadowed by a sailing regatta tacking just off shore. The boy�s Great Great Grandfather was remembered in these granite columns for service in the Great War; the war to end all wars. That was 72 million war victims ago.

This Weekend, salute the veterans in the Strawberry Parade- there aren�t many left from 60 years ago. Afterwards, take a walk past the new aquatic Center to get away from the Levee crowds, but don�t stop there. Go to Riverside Cemetery � and make a short visit with those most of us did not take the time to thank last weekend, but anytime is a good time to thank those who served, and died for principles and freedoms we hold dear. If only we believed more fervently that our current leaders are putting our youth in harm�s way for a higher purpose.

Return to the Festival by way of the Adams St. Bridge, where the waters of the Great Miami eventually mingle with those off the island of Manhattan and the salty graves of so many.

Leib Lurie

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

 

It�s graduation time -where are they going?

It's graduation time- where are they going?

Based on current education spending in Troy, the class of �05 has absorbed $72,000 in education.

They have been tested and prodded. Passed proficiencies and ACT�s. Crammed with math, science, English, grammar and history. Pushed in athletics, encouraged to play music.

Some have taken advantage of the PSEO option to get a year or more of college as a kick start on their university goals.

Some will wear letters of achievement, others the pins of academia, or the plaques from winning awards for Oratory, Science, Math, Music and more.

They will party hardy this weekend, swarm outside the Hobart arena in the swirling settling dust of the almost ready aquatic center; many will volunteer at booths and contests for their town�s annual Strawberry Festival event.

Then what?

A number will take up positions in the military. Troy has a much higher than average enlistment rate. Yet with a higher likelihood of being thrown into mortal combat than any time in the past 60 years, the odds dictate that our newly dedicated Veterans highway may be the scene of a funeral cortege soon. Will they serve us proudly? Or used as propaganda tools in a war no one understands\?

Some will continue their jobs with local service businesses and restaurants; working for a minimum wage that has sunk so far below the poverty line in the past seven years (when it was raised last) that they will need to do more than smile at mom and Dad during graduation and post their thanks on the Powerpoint screen. They will need to keep their rooms and plead for board to have enough to scrape together car insurance and some cash for advancement or college someday.

Many have been accepted at local community colleges; and will, like my son, work a bit, party a bit and study more than a little bit. They will drastically improve their odds of learning a career that will evade the foreign outsourcing onslaught nibbling away at so many jobs in the Valley. After a year or two, they will discover that college is much for forgiving and enriching than High School; and that exploring beyond a curriculum dictated by State mandates is rewarding and exciting.

A good number of Saturday�s gowned graduates will attend one of the local four year colleges and seek 120 credit hours that earn them the right to append BA or BS to their name; and seek their way in a world that needs well educated young men and women.

Some (although not enough) will matriculate next Fall far away from Troy. They will be exposed to attitudes and concepts that may be foreign and strange. Big cities, Liberal communities, Racially and Sexually mixed dorms. It will be eye opening for many and a way to steep in the richness beyond a small town.

Many will get scholarship money from local supporters and colleges. The Future Begins Today has encouraged many to reach for their dreams and will help some pay for it.

But all will need to be far more cognizant of the precarious situation ahead than the headstrong visionaries that wore tie-dyed mortarboards and gowns when their parents graduated.

This week�s alumni to be will need to decide whether they should enrich their lives with service to others, or remain focused on making money and expanding careers.

Whether to work on environmental causes or just separate recyclables and wear a self satisfying smile.

Deliberate the opportunity to take a stand in the Peace Corps or stand at a bar after work.

Go to college and simply attend classes, or become active in campus political or service clubs.

To accept the theft of their future by a callous legislature squandering their money on political boondoggles; or to work on a little known candidate�s campaign to make a difference and make a change.

There are battles being fought in Iraq, in the Senate, the halls of justice, the board rooms of major corporations. Everyone can be influenced by these graduates over the long term.

Yet there are thousands of smaller battles and skirmishes taking place much closer to home. Our graduates can make a difference here & now. Hundreds of kids in Miami County need a Bib Brother to keep a kid from going to the dark side. Volunteers are always welcome at Casa/Gal, Our Optimist Club and Troy soup kitchens. Recent walks, relays and rally�s have shown the power of earnest volunteerism can do for medical research, humanitarian support and people to people service.

These graduates have choices. And so do we as their parents and neighbors.

Monday they will be able to look at the world with open eyes and make a fresh start. In fact, not just them, but almost anyone can make a commitment to make a change. Will they? Will you?

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

 

Lurie column May 18- Changing the rules hurts everyone

Changing the rules hurts everyone

Parliamentary systems are designed to have one party make all the rules. The majority party selects the Prime Minister, who the appoints a cabinet of officers. They then effectively run both of what we call the executive and legislative branches of government. Balance is barely provided by the �back benchers� or minority party who struggle to raise issues and shout for accommodation to prevent runaway roughshod revolutionary (or reactionary) representatives of various ridings from ram-rodding ridiculous or ramshackle policies through government for the Queen�s obligatory signature.

Our government has a set of checks and balances that are more clearly delineated, but still dependent on people. The elected must to understand they have an obligation to protect and defend government by the people of the people and for the people. Not to heedlessly run a government of the slim majority, by the slim majority and for the slim majority.

As early as today, the US Senate is expected to call for a procedural change to eliminate the powerful tool of filibuster. A tool brought to life in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, where Jimmy Stewart plays a beguiling bumpkin elected to serve the people, who goes up against gangsters and starts a senate stand-up filibuster; speaking for hours to hold the floor and delay a vote.

In today�s Senate, the rules have evolved to eliminate the bladder bursting requirement to read the phone book as a way to conduct a filibuster; a way for one Senator to stall or delay a vote on a bill he or she opposes. Over the past 217 years, thousands of bills and nominees of both parties have been filibustered or delayed to call attention to shortcomings of nominees or bad bills. A majority of three fifths of the Senate is required to voter for cloture (or the end of a filibuster) and force a vote by the full Senate. This form of check and balance allows a vocal, but significant minority to prevent slight majorities from appointing controversial judges who will serve for life.

Since judges serve for life, and upper Circuit court appointees make critical decisions affecting thousands or millions of people every day. This power should not be anointed lightly or frivolously as part of a contentious party battle.

Conservative Republican Senator Hatch said it best: ��the confirmation process is not a numbers game, and I will not compromise the Senate's advice and consent function simply because the White House has sent us nominees that are either not qualified or controversial. There are a range of factors which make a nominee controversial or difficult to confirm, such as lack of experience or questionable information contained in materials not in the public domain or in their past records that may be at variance with the proper role of judges in society.�

Hatch has blocked 13 nominees to assure himself that judges leaning too far to the left did not gain appointment; now he is expected to vote for a rule change suppressing the Democrat�s right to delay or deny a vote on the three right wing activist judges being filibustered.

Gosh. Three months of news bites, sniping and positioning over three objectionable nominations. (Of the seven re-submitted by Bush, four are being held hostage over a political squabble in Michigan, the other three have received mixed or negative reviews by the Law Review and Judicial evaluation organizations. Two have had more than 1/3 of their under court votes overturned (the average is less than 5%) Yet Frist and his minions are demanding these unqualified candidates be approved for life on some form of misguided principle.

Ohio Senator DeWine is one of seven judges on the cusp- we can only hope he votes to maintain the tradition that has helped both parties maintain a semblance of balance over the years. He may note in his decision that his Democratic colleagues have approved 95% of Bush�s nominees and with 14,000 lower court justices to choose from, failing to appoint these three is not a form of democratic demonizing.

Our Sen. Voinovich has been chastised by the Republican Conservatives, who have turned on him for speaking up and voting down John Bolton, the loose cannon sent up as Ambassador to the UN. He has shown that Senators need to take their constitutional obligation seriously and independently when they give constitutional �advice and consent� to the President on appointments.

Virtually every Republican Senator who served during the Clinton years filibustered Clinton nominees, blocking 25% of them, or stalled Democratic bills and programs. To change the rules now will destroy the checks and balances that are a cornerstone of our representative democracy.

The founding Fathers rejected a parliamentary system with good reason; breaking the power of the filibuster would be a significant step towards adopting it now.

We deserve better. Please urge both Ohio Senators to vote on the side of reason and rationale; not reprehensible rabble rousing under the Bush/Frist/Cheney/Rowe leadership by calling their offices. Sen. DeWine: 202-224-2315  Sen. Voinovich: 202-224-3353

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