If they can't fix potholes ...

One of my little quirks: I never take the same route to work two days in a row. At this time of the year in the Salt Lake Valley, that idiosyncrasy has some interesting results.

Like the other day when … It came seemingly out of nowhere! And I wasn’t even speeding. But when I saw it out of the corner of my eye, I reacted with both brakes and a tug on the wheel that would have made Andretti proud. Of course, all I did was perfectly position my passenger-side front wheel to drop neatly into the center of that yawning hole that somehow opened up in the asphalt since I last drove 2700 West.

As the wheel slammed into the back of the pothole, my car shuttered and I swore, and just at that moment this thought also hit me: " These people, these government managers who can’t seem to purchase the right materials to withstand our winters, these administrators who can’t get those holes repaired before they cost the taxpayer the additional tax of auto repairs – these bureaucrats who nightly bring you the traffic jam, and the ridiculous on-ramps from hell – they want to run our financial institutions too. "

And fix our healthcare.

Madoff to Prison?

Bernie Madoff admitted his guilt in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday. He will probably be in prison for the rest of his life, and unless his wife and heirs are absolutely stupid, we’ve little hope that most of his ill-gotten gains will be recovered. And what’s more, he is going to cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars while he dies in prison.

You know, the problem with thinking humans are highly-evolved beings is that all around us there is an abundance of evidence that we are simply less-hairy apes with a large vocabulary. As long as we are driven to use simple and archaic methods to punish wrong-doers, our behavior will continue to resemble that of Jane Goodall’s friends in the mist.

We’ve relied on the primacy of property for far too long in this country. It is time we make prison a place for those vicious, violent people who commit violent crimes against people, and use the courts to ensure that crimes against property are made right – undone if you will.

Prison overcrowding is an epidemic in our country. For that you can blame not simply some slide from morality, but mostly law makers who continue to decide that every infringement upon the property of another deserves prison time.

Better than sending Bernie to prison, why not order that he repay every dime and suspend his right to declare bankruptcy? Attach a permanent ankle-bracelet and confine him to a small geographic area. Let him figure out where his next meal is coming from, and how he is going to pay for his healthcare.

Then assign one competent $40k a year paralegal to follow the trail of every asset and account he, his wife, children, or close friends ever used and repatriate the lost and stolen cash. Repay all his investors proportionally from each month’s proceeds.

But the problem is that those Bernie defrauded will feel somehow ripped off because he isn’t rotting in prison. They will say the crime against them is as worthy of prison time as any violent crime. But let one of those who lost their life savings stand face-to-face with a woman who has been brutally beaten and raped and tell her losing their life- savings is the same thing as the vicious crime she endured. It isn’t.

And have you ever seen a guy after he gets out of prison? Far from rotting, they have a lean, buff look about them. And unlike those retirees, Bernie isn’t going to have to worry about where his next meal comes from …

I’m reminded that when Moses gave the law, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” it was a revolutionary move, bringing sanity to a harsh and forbidding time and people. It was a move to make right the wrongs inflicted on one and their property by another, rather than simply punishing the offenders (usually by death.) And it was light-years ahead of where we have sunk.

It is well past time for a reformation.

Rocky Mountain No. 205

On March 6, 1859 the Grand Lodge of Missouri granted a charter to Rocky Mountain Lodge No. 205. Rocky Mountain Lodge was the first organized Lodge of Masons in the Utah Territory, and Utah Masons celebrate its Sesquicentennial Anniversary today. (1)

Rocky Mountain Lodge was organized by the officers of Johnston’s Army. That army, commanded by Col. A.S. Johnston, was sent to Utah in August 1857 by President James Buchanan. They were charged with putting down the Mormon “rebellion” and to install and protect Federal appointees.

The members of Rocky Mountain No. 205 were the first Masons to be granted a charter, but they were not the first Masons to enter the valley. When the first wagon of Mormon Pioneers arrived on July 24, 1847, many of the men in the company were Masons. Many others soon followed.

The occupying soldiers and the beleaguered pioneers did not mix well. Both went out of their way to antagonize one another. The soldiers were convinced that the pioneers were godless secessionists. The Pioneers were equally sure the soldiers were moral degenerates.

The misunderstandings hardened and the enmity between the good people of these two organizations I love escalated until a rule banning Mormons from membership in Utah Masonic Lodges was passed in 1925. (2)

For men of the LDS Faith, the beginning of Masonry in Utah is 1984. That is when many of the men I now call brother voted to rescind that rule. It is fitting that the LDS Church President in 1984 was Spencer W. Kimball, grandson of Heber C. Kimball. Brother Heber was one of the early Mormon Masons, and a stalwart defender of Masonry all his life.

Tonight I will sit in my home Lodge in the Salt Lake Masonic Temple with my good brothers and I will ponder the evolution of Masonry in Utah.

I will consider those men who organized Rocky Mountain Lodge No. 205 and began a rich and storied tradition. I will reflect on the good that came from that beginning. I will also contemplate the good that could have come if the majority of the Utah population had not been denied membership for six decades.

Then, I will think fondly of those men who voted to allow those of my faith the benefits of membership in the Fraternity. I will also look around me at dear friends that I may never have known if it were not for my own membership. And I will be filled with gratitude, for I’ve been richly blessed by all these men and events.

(1) There is a link on this blog if you want to read more of the history of the rise of Masonry in Utah.
(2) Each Grand Lodge is sovereign and makes its own laws and regulations, and only the Grand Lodge of Utah had such a prohibition.

New effort to cure cancer will take more than money

In his recent address to Congress, President Obama announced that “we will launch a new effort to conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American, including me, by seeking a cure for cancer in our time."

The American Cancer Society (ACS) reports that a little more than 565,000 Americans were killed by cancer in 2008. In 2005 that number was roughly 559,000 Americans. (1)

As a candidate, President Obama promised a doubling of funding for cancer research in order to provide for a cure, but "... last year, the NIH received approximately $5.57 billion for cancer research, so raising that to $6 billion represents a roughly 8 percent boost … [and] in order to double cancer research funding, Obama is going to need to get up to about $11 billion.” (2)

Senator Arlen Specter has long been a proponent of increased spending for cancer research. He recently said that cancer could be cured “… if the government spent $335 billion for the research.”(3) If Senator Specter's numbers are grounded in any kind of reality, and adjusting for inflation, that means that by the time I am nearly ninety we'd have something - if cancer doesn't get me first.

But I don't believe for a minute that doubling our spending will eliminate cancer in "our time." Not every problem can be solved by applying hope as a balm and cash as a cure. Some problems require structural change to make spending effective. Any "new effort" ought to be more than simply new spending levels.

We’ve been spending significant amounts on cancer research (~ $4.8 billion a year for the past five years) and over the last three the rate climbed by roughly 6,000 people. And yes, I know the population has been increasing, but the overall rate per 100,000 persons seems to have leveled off. (4)

My biggest fear is that we have institutionalized our search for a cure, and pumping more money into multiple bureaucratic foundations and agencies will no more yield a cure than quitting my job and going pro will result in my winning The Masters this year ... even if Tiger doesn’t play!

Google the number of foundations dedicated to eliminating cancer and you will see the money is too diluted to do the kind of good it could. It seems every millionaire and celebrity who has had a brush with, or lost a loved one to cancer has some kind of foundation or fundraiser, creating a tremendous waste of funds with a multiplication of administrative efforts.

To facilitate a "new effort," why don’t we pull the brightest researchers out of all those diverse foundations and build a National Cancer Task Force? Let’s give the Task Force the money and the mandate – and a time limit! Let's add the private contributions of the foundations to government spending. Let's limit the bureaucracy. Let's fast-track approval for research and approval. Let's look long and hard at the government oversight and reform it.

Of course, this would mean that we’d have to dismantle all the organizations currently seeking a cure and send most the administrators and fundraisers off to find work with other non-profit foundations. But then the hope for a cure would have merit and the money would be focused and could be effective.

And maybe, just maybe, that cure wouldn’t cost $335 billion. ____________________________________________
(1) Source: Cancer Statistics, 2008 (American Cancer Society) - Linked on this blog.
(2) Robert Farley, More money but a long way from doubling, PolitiFact.com
(3) Gardiner Harris, Specter, a Fulcrum of the Stimulus Bill, Pulls Off a Coup for Health Money, NY Times, 02.13.2009
(4) Source: Cancer Statistics, 2008 (ACS) - Note: From 193.9 in 1950 to 183.8 in 2005, an improvement of roughly 5% in 55 years!

Two-thirds

While our Founding Fathers did a pretty good job building a system of government that could place appropriate checks and balances upon those in power, they neither completely understood the past nor saw perfectly into the future. They did not always provide the correct remedy for every eventuality.

I'm quite convinced those Builders of this Nation looked back, not to Rome's Republic, but to Plato's when they built these United States. And I am equally convinced that they got more than a few things wrong. Most thoughtful people have their own list of the mistakes they made.

My list of errors includes the required majorities for the passage of legislation. I am mindful of much that has been written on the "tyranny of the minority." I have also heard more adages about the "evils of compromise," than one ought to have to hear in a life-time.

Regardless, I am seriously undeterred in my belief that requiring a so-called "super-majority" (2/3rds) for each and every bill introduced in a legislature would produce fewer but better laws. And we ought to correct this mistake to provide a better future for our grandchildren.

Other Alternatives?

While I deem capitalism to be the best of all known economic systems, these times cause me daily to think, “Surely there must be an economic system better for all humanity than capitalism.”

Many activities are best left to Darwinian market forces, but while it is important to reward capital and encourage innovation, some activities just don’t work well in a system that also rewards unabashed self-interest. We need a serious, reasoned and civil, public dialogue about which activities ought to generate profit and which should not.

The only problem is that such a dialogue is absolutely impossible. If anyone recommends that a particular activity – say health care – be removed from the competitive marketplace a cacophony rises with shouts of “Socialism!” and “Communism!” or arguments for government takeover.

The problem with the profit motive is that there are some activities which ought not to be accessible only to those with means leaving only scraps to fall on the masses. The problem, with government takeover is that a function shouldn’t have to be subject to the bureaucracy, fraud, waste, abuse, inefficiency and sheer stupidity of government management.

We don’t need the same old tired arguments with only two polarizing alternatives and shrill voices raised in anger and indignation.

There is at least one other way.

Let’s take Financial Services for an example. Strangely missing in the discussions we had about the record profits of some banks in prior years and those we are having now about bailout recipients (strangely, the self-same institutions) we haven't talked much about cooperative credit unions. They provide fine services to members for smaller fees generally at better rates. They are a viable model that is not profit driven but rather cooperative, and yet not socialism and/or communism.

Using this example, recognizing that the health care model has obviously failed, and that there are other social services and activities that just don’t belong to the victors or the bureaucrats, we ought to be able to talk about third, fourth or fifth ways … and not Fifth Columns or Red Scares, to the benefit of all America.

I’m either a pessimist or a realist however, for I very much doubt it.