Montgomery Transit February 8, 2007

I got an e-newsletter from the Action Committee for Transit today that said:

The County Council voted unanimously Tuesday to add to the county’s
annual list of transportation priorities the statement that improving
transit is the county’s top priority. County Executive Leggett has
indicated he will sign the amended document. It will be forwarded to
the Governor, Transportation Secretary, and Legislature, and serve as
the basis for discussion at the state level of future transportation
funding in the county.

That’s great. My question would be: why can’t we do the same in Frederick County? Why do we have to wait until we’re desperate?

Righteous Blues, Downtown February 3, 2007

Last night Kita and I met up with some friends last night at Frederick Cellars, which is a great new place in downtown Frederick.  A guy who owns a vineyard in Frederick county moved his wine presses and everything into an old warehouse downtown. The wine and the ambiance are great.

We saw a great local blues musician there for the first time, Kelly Carmichael. He was fantastic. Righteous, old-time sound. Could do whatever he wanted with the guitar.

I bought his CD. Below you can listen to his cover of Robert Johnson’s “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom”:

It was another great night in our town. Our city is both so small and mellow. But we also have great culture like this that we can walk to. It is a blessing.

Red Line to Frederick February 2, 2007

 

There was an article in the News-Post today about getting the Red Line extended to Frederick. That would be awesome. We need to get our Frederick leadership more focused on this.

Federal Government Making Local Decisions January 31, 2007

More bad news in the Washington Post today about efforts to put the new Metro line in Tyson’s Corner through a tunnel instead of above ground.

It is so proven, time and time again, what the results are of keeping transit above ground: it does nothing to change the urban fabric. Northern Virginia, in fact, is a widely-cited case study in the difference the Orange Line has had in its below-ground (Arlington) and above ground (Fairfax) portions.

Local leaders know this and are trying desperately to make the change. But because the bulk of the funding is coming from the federal government, and because certain federal govenernment regulations make this change somehow impossible, it is not going to happen.

Which raises the question: why is this a federal decision? Transit in Virginia has nothing to do with the rest of the country, but the intrusion of national authority into the process is going to result in a tragic outcome.

Devolution used to be a concept with more public support than it has now. Excessive central authority makes for inefficiency and poor decision-making, as shown in this example. It also detaches citizens from government, making for much of the apathy and disillusionment we have towards civic life in our country. Some day we must change this.

Update: there is new hope for the tunnel. We’ll see if anything happens. This still doesn’t change how the federal involement makes the whole process ineffective.

Barack & Buffet January 28, 2007

A few weeks ago I finished Barack Obama’s Audactiy of Hope. It was great.

A particularly interesting point was his describing his time spent with Warren Buffet. Buffet, the second richest man in the U.S., spoke about how he thinks that he and the richest 1% of Americans should pay greater taxes. He says:

 [Those wealthy against higher taxes] have this idea that it’s ‘their money’ and they deserve to keep every penny of it. What they don’t factor in is all the public investment that lets us live the way we do. Take me as an example. I happen to have a talent for allocating capital. But my ability to use that talent is completely dependent on the society that I was born into. If I’d been born into a tribe of hunters, this talent of mine would be pretty worthless. I can’t run very fast. I’m not particularly strong. I’d probably end up as some wild animal’s dinner.

But I was lucky enough to be born in a time and place where society views values my talent, and gave me a good education to develop that talent, and set up the laws and the financial system to let me do what I love doing–and make a lot of money doing it. The least I can do is help pay for all that.

…

The free market’s the best mechanism ever devised to put resources to their most efficient and productive use. The government isnt’ particularly good at that. But the market isn’t so good at making sure that the wealth that’s produced is being distributed fairly or wisely. Some of that wealth has to be plowed back into education, so that the next generation has a fair chance, and to maintain our infrastructure, and provide some sort of safety net for those who lose out in a market economy. And it just makes sense that those of use who’ve benefited from the market should pay a bigger share.

It is a very interesting perspective from the most successful financier ever. As our country succumbs more and more to the pressures of globalization and the need for citizens to attain “creative class” status for their prosperity, something has to give. The only solution in my mind is an unheard of investment in education–a dedication to it like no country has ever provided. And that will cost money. Mr. Buffett suggests an interesting logic and justification for where that money might come from. It will in fact be the right thing for all Americans.

King & The World House January 28, 2007

At Church today, Toni, our pastor, read Martin Luther King’s essay, The World House. It was fascinating, as applicable today as it was when written 40 years ago. MLK was a tremendous mind, heart and was a great communicator.

Here was an excerpt that I found particularly interesting:

We must work passionately and indefatigably to bridge the gulf between our scientific progress and our moral progress. One of the great problems of mankind is that we suffer from a poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually.

Every man lives in two realms, the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms and instrumentalities by means of which we live. Our problem today is that we have allowed the internal to become lost in the external. We have allowed the means by which we live to outdistance the ends for which we live. So much of modern life can be summarized in that suggestive phrase of Thoreau: “Improved means to an unimproved end.” This is the serious predicament, the deep and haunting problem, confronting modern man. Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul. When the external of man’s nature subjugates the internal, dark storm clouds begin to form.

Western civilization is particularly vulnerable at this moment, for our material abundance has brought us neither peace of mind nor serenity of spirit. An Asian writer has portrayed our dilemma in candid terms:

You call your thousand material devices “labor-saving machinery,” yet you are forever “busy.” With the multiplying of your machinery you grow increasingly fatigued, anxious, nervous, dissatisfied. Whatever you have, you want more; and wherever you are you want to go somewhere else…your devices are neither time-saving nor soul-saving machinery. They are so many sharp spurs which urge you on to invent more machinery and to do more business.¹

This tells us something about our civilization that cannot be cast aside as a prejudiced charge by an Eastern thinker who is jealous of Western prosperity. We cannot escape the indictment.

This does not mean that we must turn back the clock of scientific progress. No one can overlook the wonders that science has wrought for our lives. The automobile will not abdicate in favor of the horse and buggy, or the train in favor of the stagecoach, or the tractor in favor of the hand plow, or the scientific method in favor of ignorance and superstition. But our moral and spiritual “lag” must be redeemed. When scientific power outruns moral power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men. When we foolishly minimize the internal of our lives and maximize the external, we sign the warrant for our own day of doom.

Our hope for creative living in this world house that we have inherited lies in our ability to re-establish the moral ends of our lives in personal character and social justice. Without this spiritual and moral reawakening we shall destroy ourselves in the misuse of our own instruments.

Christine Belonging January 11, 2007

My friend Christine just wrote a post about belonging in life and how she’s found that in Frederick. It was very well written. A great articulation of what’s been a big issue in my mind and soul for a long time. And similarly Kita and I have found a great sense of community and of belonging in Frederick just like Christine and Jim.

Needing to belong, needing to having community is a universal impulse, I believe. In fact is is really the most important thing in life in my mind and heart. In our country we are, without really realizing it, eroding our ability to achieve such community. It is horrible. In Frederick we have a little outpost, a little bulkwark against the trend. Hopefully from here we’ll take a stand and reverse the tide.

Christine ends by talking about looking to bring other friends into her Frederick community. I’m always hassling my remote friends on the same topic. Hopefully by reading Christine’s post they’ll see that others echo my claim’s of Frederick’s wonderfulness and my pitches will have more credibility.

Photo of Frederick’s ‘06 “In The Street” by 2ndHalf on Flickr

Football, Tennis, the Internet & God December 27, 2006

At the gym this morning, I was watching Sports Center. There was a segment about Lawrence Jackson, a defensive end at USC. He hadn’t had any sacks all year and was really bummed about it. His coach, Pete Carroll, then recommended to him the book “The Inner Game of Tennis,” which is about how you have to release all anxiety, self-criticism & negativity in order for you to play tennis at your best. The day after reading the book, Jackson had 3 sacks against Oregon.

It was a timely Sports Center segment for me. Yesterday I met with a friend of mine who I used to work with. He gave me some candid, well-intentioned, but, in his characteristic , critical advice on my (Internet) business. It had me down a bit and anxious.

Sports Center of all things helped me remember that negative energy never helps you get anything done. It is a lesson that my church is always telling me, but sometimes messages only reach you in mysterious ways.

Thinking more postively about what he had to say, I now really see its merits and am going to enthusiastically construct a plan to persue his recommendations. And with optimstic thoughts behind me, I think I’ll be successful in making it happen. And will maybe have a few sacks in the process.
And one of these days I’ll make positive thinking such a habit I won’t have to go through this process. But in the meantime, thank you Sports Center, Lawrence Jackson, Pete Carroll, W. Timothy Gallwey (the author) & my friend.

Colleen McCullough & Romania December 20, 2006

I got back a week ago from a business trip to Romania. On the trip i finished up one Colleen McCullough book (First Man in Rome) and read through another (Thorn Birds).

Neither of these are profound or are Nobel Prize threats. The plots lines and characters do not have the strongest credibility. Colleen is not putting a mirror to real life.

Nevertheless, the books are great to read. Very entertaining

(and not totally unrealistic . . . not talking

a Hollywood script). They are extremely well researched and do a great job of transporting you to Ancient Rome and early 20th cent. Australia. A great way to learn.

And a great way to refresh your being. On my trip I felt that I was half putting around Transylvania, half floating through the Outback. Which, on the return, was a great perspective-rattler and dropped me back home renewed and refreshed.

Thanks to the genius of writers who make this sort of thing happen.

Busy Christine December 12, 2006

Christine: despite being male, I relate alot to your post. Part of why I like living in Frederick is that we avoid lots of the pressures that make our lives complex. I think that we all do a pretty good job of making things simple. One of the biggest elements, in fact, is how compact our lives our here. I think that time spent driving around is one of the great time drains in America, and we are all quite fortunate to avoid that.

I think that business is also generated through isolation. There is so much that we do individually that we could accomplish much more efficiently if done collectively. Again, I think that our community does a better than average job with this, but we could do better. Co-housing is the next step.

At the end of the day the challenge is entirely inside ourselves to weed out the distractions. It is all about prioritization. But it is a great challenge for everyone.