Lurie column May 31- It's Berry Time

 It’s Berry Time!

Describing the Strawberry Festival to out of towners is difficult. One can say that this is the weekend 300,000 people tromp to Troy to be greeted by our 25,000 citizens decked out in floats, costumes and plastic gloves to safely handle the hundreds of thousands of meals we will prepare as volunteer cooks, grill handlers, bakers, glazers and cleaner-uppers.

To many natives, this is ‘Black Weekend” a time to skedaddle out of town. Yet the 250 non profit groups that will set up show on the levee call it black weekend for a different reason; it’s when they all go in the black; often raising the bulk of their funds for the works and projects planned for the year.

This past weekend in between grilling and running errands for the Philadelphia family picnic, I was talking and working with our staffing coordinator from the Optimist Club; filling in the last few slots of our booth schedule. While waiting for my in-law’s PC to load a new version of Windows, I was pecking away at a new design for a snappier label for the new larger, decorator jar of custom made preserves to affix to the 1200 jars of Troy Noon Optimist Strawberry Preserves (editorial note- this is a blatant commercial plug for some of the best tasting all-natural preserves you will ever buy as gifts; and they keep far better than donuts, sugar waffles or buttered corn. The Optimists also have cool new prizes for the Ring Toss,  Radar Fast Pitch and Lollypop pull for toddlers).  

My office is abuzz with Berry Business. Corie is PR chair for the Festival, and has been running around the valley making appearances nd issuing news stories. Angie’s sorority has been stocking up on burgers and nacho material. UPS just dumped a pallet of Cane Toss prizes in our front office. The color printer is spewing labels for Preserves, signs for booths, and schedules for the members.

Friday is all but a company holiday- anyone volunteering at the festival gets the day off to prepare for the onslaught, and 80% of us do. (2^nd shameless commercial plug… over 100 of these groups use the free OneCall Now message service account from Peoples Savings bank to coordinate their efforts and boost turnout.

For those seemingly few Trojans who have decided to stay in town, but have not yet volunteered for a stint in a booth; let me tell you, there are opportunities awaiting. Spending 4 hours in a trailer, under a tent or behind the grandstands cooking, cleaning, prepping and serving with friends, family, kids and neighbors beats an old time quilting bee and comes close to the camaraderie at a barn raising, but with far less grunting and fewer splinters. Call 937-335-3336 and we’ll match you up with a great cause and a fun time.

The groups at the Festival run the gamut, raising funds for youth, schools, churches, housing, drug treatments, cancer, scholarships, and so much more. On one hand, its’ a shame that so much of the costs for these worthwhile endeavors come from friends and festival goers. One might argue that our city, county and state should take on a larger burden. Yet this vast social experiment in using strawberries as a lure to willingly separate money from the people is in its’ 30^th year; and still growing.

There will be more new things to see, a smattering of low fat/sugar free things to buy, and above all; the opportunity for our volunteers to raise the essential funds for their organizations in the 17 hours of booth time. So wear something red, watch the parade, then come to the levee with cash. Help make sure it is a terrific ‘Black weekend’ in Troy.

 

Leib Lurie is a Troy Civic Theatre Board Member, Optimist Club member and CEO of phone message service OneCallNow.com. You can reach him at Leib@Lurie.net

Or see these columns on his blog at www.llurie.blogspot.com

lURIE COLUMN mAY 24-2006: Music comes in many scores

Last week future Miami County sheriff Joe Mehan who has a terrific deep voice that makes me jealous and a strong faith to express it, working with his wife Dee, pulled together the first annual Troy Children’s Choir festival. Five groups of young kids from the Valley performed a wide array of songs with panache, verve and feelings. Choirmaster Barrie Van Kirk led the finale’ with 75 kids singing in unison. Their parents and siblings were supportive and proud. Having the nerve to perform in public is never easy, and requires a level of confidence and many weeks or months of practice to assure the audience sees and hears a quality production.

A few days later, as a supportive husband, I went to the Twin Valley South Spring performance to hear Barb’s Junior High  and High School choirs perform. There is a substantive difference in quality, range and depth between grammar school and High School voices; but the enthusiastic participation, pride, dedication and parental approval are just as evident.

That week, we also went to hear The Dayton Youth Orchestra. Ninety Eight high school students representing the most talented musicians in the Valley performing complex works of Mozart that rivaled the Dayton Philharmonic in their tone and volume. These youngsters virtually leeched confidence and professionalism from their pores as their music filled the Schuster Center, reverberating off the ceiling constellations. Many of the seniors have earned music scholarships to help with college costs, others just love to play. But they need to really love it; 3-4 practices a week and for many, a 50 minute commute.

Monday night was the musical culmination of the month. The China National Orchestra made their first appearance in Dayton. One hundred of the finest classical musicians in the world pulled in from Chicago at 6 and performed for almost 3 hours at 8. We heard the world premiere performance of Nature and Me, written by the Chinese-American composer Gong-Qian Yang, who plays with the Dayton Philharmonic. This piece used European instruments to share an Oriental harmony and intimacy between the instruments and nature. The soloist Chuanyun Li, He moved the Schuster audience to 3 standing ovations as he made his strings sing. When he played Paganini with jazz overtones and an improve limbo beat, the place went nuts. Li is a mere 26 years old, having won the international violin competition in 1991 when only 11. His grammar school had an orchestra where students in 3^rd grade can play classical music.

For the youngsters, we applauded not only the musicians, but their dedicated parents who keep the car pools moving and make the music booster functions a success. Music may sooth the savage beast, but the ogre in the room is the spectre of unfunded needs. Few American schools have the proper budget for music and so the task falls to parents. Which is why the Troy music boosters need to raise more than $100,000 a year for uniforms, instruments, music, and travel.

Orchestra and Choir are not part of the United States No Child Left Behind requirements. There is no proficiency test for singing and coordination, for harmony and cooperation. But these children are far better and richer for it, and internationally, the focus on a more balanced life and the power and importance of music may be a significant reason for the Chinese strength in music coupled with tremendous participation and graduation rates in  engineering, math and computer science.

The skill sets are inexorably linked. Music is life. We need more of it, at every level, in every school.

 

Leib Lurie is a Troy resident, music aficionado and Sinclair Music Appreciation class graduate.

See these columns on his blog at www.llurie.blogspot.com

Lurie column May 17- What's a few billion records between friends?

So what’s a few billion records shared with friends?

Looking at the billions of phone records being collected by the NSA will be the subject of questions tomorrow when former NSA director Hayden starts confirmation hearings to be promoted to be the next director of the CIA.

Database mining is a powerful tool. In my prior Troy based business, Beeline Shopper, we developed the process to monitor millions of consumer transactions a week looking for patterns and information. We used computers and servers that cost less than $50,000 to analyze the purchase behavior of millions of consumers, correlated with every conceivable product categorized by taste, brand and size; looking at the items they bought with their frequent shopper cards over a period of six months.

Then we created a customized email that looked like the weekly newspaper flyer (our E-Flyer) uniquely constructed to have just the specially priced items each shopper would want. If you never bought Coke, even at 10 for a buck, it wouldn’t be on your e-flyer. On the other hand, if you always bought cola beverages, regardless of brand, but only in cans- then whenever a 12-pack special from any vendor was available, your e-flyer would let you know.

By analyzing specific shopping patterns over time, it is easy to build a detailed profile of each family. The system could, if needed, do a pretty good job of identifying who lived in the home (baby? Old person?), their lifestyle (vegetarian? kosher?) and even hobbies (reader? Picnic?). Just by looking at the UPC codes on the products you buy.

Now the NSA has an examination tool that is orders of magnitude more sophisticated and, funded by a secret $8 billion budget, guaranteed to be faster and more adept at matching up the pieces. By looking at over a billion calls a day, these super computers can not only determine how often you called a particular number (like my research on how often one bought Coke), but by tracking everyone you called, and everyone they called, and everyone that they called- a massive spider web of data emerges.

If five different phones received calls from an Afghanistan number, and three of those phones also called a local Gyro store- is it coincidence or grounds for wiretapping the store? By tracing all callers of an 800 number to a flight school, and then tracking THEIR calls to common numbers, the NSA might have been able to isolate the 9/11 terrorists and seek a legitimate wire-tap on their phones to hear what they were saying, not just who they were calling. Or so the case goes. Add in the knowledge that they all buy Falafel, and the truck to Guantanamo can start backing up to their door right now.

We are told the phone companies released CDR’s (call detail records) only to the NSA operatives ‘in special rooms at the data centers’. Could these operatives be tapping into lines to listen without a warrant? I don’t know, and we won’t find out.

Yet, according to Attorney General Gonzalez, this wholesale capture of communications is a new thing. One that could not have been anticipated by our government prior to 9/11; so the 1994 federal rules against it could not have meant to restrict such data gathering. Or is it? And could they?

During the cold war, the predecessor to the NSA, the Army Signal Security Agency, sent representatives to the major telegraph companies and asked for cooperation in getting access to all telegraph traffic entering or leaving the United States. The companies complied, over the objections of their lawyers. When these practices came to light as part of a 1976 investigation into intelligence abuses, President Gerald R. Ford extended executive privilege to the telecommunications companies (they were told to say, Klink like,  "I see nothing, I know nothing") on the recommendation of then chief-of-staff Dick Cheney and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, according to the Project on Government Oversight.

Yet there is nothing to fear my friends, such abuses by a few sneaky federal officials hired by President Ford have long since been eradicated, and today’s citizens have nothing to be concerned about. Your liberty is in the good hands of the trustworthy current government officials that have taken their place in Washington.

 

Leib Lurie is a Troy resident and database geek You can reach him at editorial@tdnpublishing.com

Or see these columns on his blog at www.llurie.blogspot.com

It's graduation time at college

TITLE: It’s graduation time

My first college course was in 1972 in Hartford. My most recent was this Spring at Sinclair. Learning is not a one shot deal, nor something to be checked off as completed; because done properly, it is never done.

I went back to Sinclair last Fall to accompany my wife to Dayton as she took a choir course. I needed to find something interesting offered Tuesday night. I found it frustrating that the catalog was not segregated into ‘cool classes’ vs boring ones; much less showing a breakdown culling out Tuesday evenings. For all the fancy on-line catalog systems, picking college courses is still a tedious process poring over short snippets of curriculum in order to get a clue what our class time will be worth.

There are required classes for different majors, and given pre-requisites for minors and even listed electives for future study and advanced degrees. Younger students have an academic advisor to guide them through the tempest of courses, and a simple, albeit protracted route of study for a two or four year diploma.

After that, the path becomes more elusive and less direct. Graduate degrees are often just more of the same; lectures, readings, quizzes, homework, papers, Final, grade report. Some students are lucky to have professors (albeit usually a small minority) who bring the joy of learning to life, and generate enthusiasm and excitement, even when the subject is mundane.

Many students will just go with the flow, learning by osmosis as they trudge through campus, but the enthused and motivated will seek out the tougher courses, those with professors that make one think and push. Not the one known for the easy “A’s” or gentleman ‘C’s”.

Having already gone through a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree and then languishing for years in the lackadaisical world of building entrepreneurial businesses, it was time for a challenge. So back to Sinclair I went.

Last Fall I took up a course in Structured Logic from the Philosophy department. The instructor was fascinating. A lawyer, MBA, judge, with a masters in Computer Science, and an ego significantly larger than life. He pushed and challenged us to read, comprehend and build on each lesson as we struggled with the depth of his understanding compared with our collective ignorance. It was terrific.

Unfortunately, his family had health issues and he missed several classes- without notice. So we were greeted by the department chair one evening 2/3 into the quarter who introduced his replacement. A boring, mundane, inexperienced last minute substitute who had never been exposed to the subject we were enmeshed in. She valiantly read the book to us. Sentence by sentence, word for word. With no comprehension or awareness. Thanks goodness we had only a few weeks left.

For the Spring quarter I chose a course completely outside my comfort zone. My wife has advanced degree in music pedagogy, she teaches High School music and had taught piano for over a decade. My son is majoring in music at Sinclair. My daughter has a degree in music synthesis. I have been exposed to classical music forever. Yet my own musical knowledge and talent has been limited to pushing the ‘Play’ button on the cd player (having advanced from earlier LP, 8-track, and cassette players) making me a true pseudo musician.

So off to Music Appreciation 101 I went. The instructor was enthusiastic, intriguing, well rounded and knowledgeable. We were led on a whirlwind tour of music from medieval monks through romantic classical, dabbling in opera and cruising through modern Jazz and rock. Learning and listening how the culture and politics of the era made the music and vice versa. A neat experience.

I can now report with some statistical accuracy, that 2 out of 3 faculty at Sinclair are really good; although that statement would violate one of the basic rules of structured logic.

It’s never too late to keep learning.

Leib Lurie is a student living in Troy.

See these columns on his blog at www.llurie.blogspot.com

Lurie column May 3- waves of immigrants march on Lake Michigan

Waves of Immigrants march to Lake Michigan

 

When 400,000 people band together with a single purpose, the power is amazing. I was caught up in the Chicago Immigrant parade Monday and saw the energy build and flow.  

Around the country, over a million immigrants took an unpaid day off to make their feelings on the pending immigrant legislation known and heard. They staged a non-violent work-out to demonstrate what happens to our society and services when these 11 million workers stop working.

In the best tradition of non-violent activism, founded on principles espoused by Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King, the marchers simultaneously held parades and rallies in a dozen cities across the country, showing there is power in numbers. The parade wended through downtown Chicago for hours creating havoc for taxis and commuters. Police had expected 50,000 people, yet 400,000 showed up, 80% of the immigrant population of Chicago. They poured out of the ‘el’ (subway), trudged across town, and filled buses. These workers and their families came to make their voices heard and in protest, leaving employers without the essential staff needed to keep hotels, restaurants, meat packing plants, warehouses, landscaping firms and buildings running.

Marchers were waving American flags, as well as those from Mexico, Poland, Ireland and dozens of other countries around the globe. Drummers were spread out every 25 yards or so to keep the beat as the chants reverberated through the skyscraper canyons,  "Si, se Puede!"  "Yes, we can".

Those of you in Miami County can try and imagine 400,000 people in one place with one purpose…  visualize every visitor to the Strawberry festival, each one with a new friend, lining up 10 wide and marching down Market Street – in an ongoing wave that lasts for four hours.

The Chicago parade ended at a rally in Grant park, the biggest gathering there since Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass in English, Polish and Spanish in 1979 as he celebrating the strength of diversity of Americans

The immigrant issue facing our society is a complex one. It transcends the current administration and Congress, and harks back hundreds of years.

Opinions on this page have suggested that we should return to the racist, anti-Semitic and bigoted approach our protectionist government adopted in 1924 intended to restrict Jewish, Italian and Asian immigrants. Yet that law left immigration from Mexico unrestricted, to feed the voracious yet low cost labor demands of southern farmers. The restrictions were left on the books until 1965, the dawning of the civil rights era, but only after millions of refugees during World War II were turned back, and millions more refused entry due to their country of origin regardless of skills and education to help our country grow. 

Congress has been debating a yet another change in immigration programs and status. Many realists, including notable lawmakers on both sides and even President Bush calling for a ‘guest worker’ program. These folks feel that the misdemeanor crime of border crossing should be considered long since paid back by illegal workers that have been here for years and can show they have and can support a family, pay a fine, and get on a fast track to citizenship.

Some neo-conservatives (and a few all-white marchers in Troy Monday) are in favor or clamping down, "throw 'em out" and even seize homes and assets from long standing neighbors.  They often add the spurious drumbeats of the ‘war on terrorism’; claiming that a porous border that allows job seekers an entre' is a honey-pot for terrorists. This argument conveniently ignores any facts and data, but hey, it’s a patriotic barn burner argument.

The reality of the situation is that many employers have been driven to find lower cost workers to meet the expectations of our consumer driven society. Eleven million workers have crossed our porous borders in the past four decades; most hold down jobs, pay taxes, contribute to society and are half as likely to need community services and support as the general ‘legal’ population.

Coming out from their jobs Monday, 80% of Chicago's immigrants (and 10% of All American immigrant workers) marched together to be heard and seen, the largest percentage of an ethnic group ever to take up a single cause. That cause is just. Fanning the flames of distrust with allusions to bigotry and terror does not serve their dignity or those of every American.

 

Leib Lurie is native New Yorker and Troy resident. You can reach him at Leib@Lurie.net

Or see these columns on his blog at www.llurie.blogspot.com

Lurie column 2006-5-3: March to Lake Michigan brings issues to the fore

March to Lake Michigan brings issues to the fore

When 400,000 people swarm together with a single purpose, the energy is amazing. I was caught up in the Chicago Immigrant parade Monday and saw the energy build and flow.  

Around the country, over a million immigrants took an unpaid day off to make their feelings on the pending immigrant legislation known and heard. To stage a non-violent work-out to demonstrate what happens to our society and services when these 11 million workers stop working.

In the best tradition of non-violent activism, founded on principles espoused by Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King, the marchers simultaneously held parades and rallies in a dozen cities across the country, showing there is power in numbers. The parade wended through downtown Chicago, creating havoc for taxis and commuters. Police had expected 50,000 people. When 500,000 showed up, pouring out of the ‘el’ (subway) these workers and their families came to make their voices heard; and, in protest, leaving employers without the essential staff needed to keep hotels, restaurants, meat packing plants, warehouses, landscaping firms and buildings running.

Marchers swinging mainly American flags, sprinkled with those from Mexico, Poland, Ireland and dozens of other countries around the globe. Drummers were spread out every 25 yards or so to keep the shouted slogans ‘on-beat’.

Those of you in Miami County can try and imagine 400,000 people in one place with one purpose… just visualize every visitor to the Strawberry festival, each one with a new friend, lining up 10 wide and marching down Market Street – in an ongoing wave that lasts for four hours. The Chicago parade ended at a rally in Grant park, the biggest gathering there since Pope John Paul celebrated Mass in English, Polish and Spanish in 1979 celebrating the diversity of windy city residents.

The immigrant issue facing our society is a complex one. It transcends the current administration and Congress, and harks back hundreds of years. In fact, most of Northern Ohio was labeled ‘The Western Reserve’, area set aside for the expansion of farms and towns so immigrants and their expanding families outgrew the Nutmeg state and migrated west to Akron.

Opinions on this page have suggested that we should return to the racist, anti-Semitic and bigoted approach our protectionist government adopted in 1924 intended to restrict Jewish and Asian immigrants. Yet that law left immigration from Mexico unrestricted, to feed the voracious yet low cost labor demands of southern farmers. The restrictions were left on the books in 1965 in the dawning of the civil rights era; but after millions of refugees during World War II were turned back, and millions more refused entry due to their country of origin regardless of skills and education.  

Today’s issue is stark but complex. Congress has been debating a yet another change in immigration programs and status. Many realists, including notable lawmakers on both sides and even President Bush calling for a ‘guest worker’ program that would allow illegal workers that have been here for several years to show they have and can support a family, pay a fine, and get on a fast track to citizenship.

Conservatives are in favor or clamping down and imposing severe penalties,  imposed deportation and rampant seizing of assets from immigrants. Their attitude is ‘amnesty be damned’ eviction is the only approach. They often add the spurious drumbeats of the ‘war on terrorism’; claiming that a porous border that allows job seekers is more likely to allow terrorists in. This argument conveniently ignores any facts and data, but hey, it’s a patriotic barn burner argument.

The reality of the situation is that many employers have been driven to find lower cost workers to meet the expectations of our consumer driven society. Eleven million workers have crossed the border in the past four decades; most hold down jobs, pay taxes, contribute to society and are half as likely to need community services and support as the general ‘legal’ population.

Coming out from the basements Monday, 11% of our country’s immigrants stood together to be heard and seen, the largest percentage of an ethnic group ever to take the nations’ stage for a single cause. That cause is just. Fanning the flames of distrust with allusions to bigotry and terror does not serve their dignity or those of every American.

 

Leib Lurie is native New Yorker and Troy resident. You can reach him at Leib@Lurie.net

Or see these columns on his blog at www.llurie.blogspot.com