Plant Shutdown

For a time in the mid-90s, I took a break from radio to work in the automotive industry.  More specifically, I found work at a Mazda/Ford subcontractor south of Detroit that processed freshly-assembled vehicles for storage or shipment to dealers and fleets.
Winter was our busiest time of year, with dealers replenishing their stock, often necessitating working in sub-zero temperatures seven days a week, 11 hours a day.  Summer, on the other hand, resulted in a decrease in work, with summer layoff options available to those with higher seniority who preferred to collect unemployment and not use any accrued vacation time...until the winter, of course.
July was especially fun.  The Flat Rock Assembly Plant shut down for two weeks to install new sheetmetal dies and other tooling for the coming model year.  Most of us who had stayed on were primarily kept busy with accessorizing or special projects.  Though the plant closed, the show still went on for us.
And we still got paid.
Imagine going 16 days without a paycheck, yet still being asked to report for work each day.  Sound crazy?
Yet the leadership in Washington asked just that of many of the workers who support the federal government in some capacity or another.  And they did it.
Not sure if I could do the same thing.
What was allowed to happen is nothing short of an absolute travesty.  Our founding fathers are spinning in their graves.  Other countries are laughing at us harder than ever...rolling on the floor this time.
Thankfully, it's finally over.  But the effects of it are still lingering and will for some time.
Our leaders on Capitol Hill have progressed to the level of their own incompetence, proving that the fiscal crisis of 2008 has taught them nothing.
I encourage those of you who do vote, to run your Congressional leaders out of town on a rail this year.  If you don't vote, then now's the time to register.  We need to prove now more than ever that the will of the people is strong, and our strength is in our numbers.  We have the first African-American President of the United States for this very reason.
Why vote them out?  Because I don't know of a single congressman or U.S. senator who offered to return his or her paycheck to the U.S. Treasury until the crisis was resolved, yet many federal departments were shut down and many seniors and disabled citizens worried sick over whether or not they would receive their Social Security checks.
I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, so I'll say this: Anyone who did give their check back, you can stay in office.  The rest of you, most of whom are already wealthy, can clean out your desks.
The answer is not a redistribution of wealth.  It's the realignment of priorities.  To put partisan bickering aside and be very cognizant of the fact that when the government shuts down, we are very vulnerable.  September 11th vulnerable.  Need I say more?
Or has Capitol Hill already forgotten that as well?
Not us.
And Tuesday, November 5th is the time to prove it.
See you at the polls.



NEXT WEEK:  Another kind of shutdown

Ask Questions Later

One way of celebrating my birthday is not paying attention to anything that's happening in the news.
It's my day.
Give me my day.
That said, on with the show.
In the early morning hours of Thursday, August 22nd, James Edwards, 52, of Shaler Township (about 15 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh) opened fire on his family less than a week after being suspended from his $52,000 a year job as an electrician at Pittsburgh International Airport.  He had only been there for two years.
He then turned the gun on himself.  His daughter and a pet beagle also died.  His son and wife were hospitalized.
It's always incidents like these that have everyone crying "why"?
Why, indeed.
Because you lost your job?
You lose your job, so you're going to further lose your family by destroying it with your own hand?  The one thing you CAN count on in this world above all else?
Having been in the radio business for more than two and a half decades, I've learned that it's a volatile, unsteady business where getting fired is a way of life.  In fact, I know of no job in the private sector these days that's safe.  Even the public sector is more shaky than ever, due to budget constraints.
Pensions are fragile to non-existent.  No thanks to the job crisis in this country, companies find themselves in the unique position of demanding and getting 'givebacks' from current employees and offering less to new prospects.
And not only that, it's not enough to give 40 hours of labor anymore.  Or even loyalty, for that matter. Companies have become more and more vigilant of owning every aspect of an employee.  Non-competes, unpaid after-hours work, and scrutinizing social media for any trace of your whereabouts.
They're getting it, too.
I've prided myself on the fact that while a company can own my labors for 40 hours a week, and maybe a little more every once in a while, there are some parts of me that are not for sale, nor should they be, and they never will be.
Ever.
Dignity.  Pride.  Integrity.
And many sacrifice those very things for the sheer sake of the almighty dollar.
It's not called "mean green" for nothin', ya know!
It's why we buy the things we can't afford, yet say we can't afford to be without.  The Rat Race.  It's not about the rat, but how many performance-enhancing substances it can ingest.
All a company can do is take away your paycheck.
The three qualities I just mentioned are yours and yours alone.  They're yours to keep, and they're the only things you're allowed to take with you when you leave this world.
So why sell them?  Or worse, give them away.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
When James Edwards learned of his impending job loss, he surrendered control of everything he had and everything he stood for to anyone willing to take it.  Not the airport authority, but society.  He was upset by society enough to strike out and hurt the people closest to him whom he has an obligation to protect.
From high school dropouts to people with advanced degrees, people get fired.  Auto mechanics to aerospace engineers.  It's a way of life.
Pick yourself up.  Dust yourself off.  Move on.
There is nothing and no one in this life that is worth killing yourself or someone else over.  Nothing.
Dignity.  Pride.  Integrity.
Commit a selfish crime like this, and you've given all of these qualities away.  Because that's exactly what it is, selfish.
If you think your life is that bad, what gives you the right to deprive others of theirs?  Are they that much better off than you to the point where you can't stand it?
And the beat goes on.


NEXT WEEK:  Stay Tuned

What We Do Here

My dad is now 68.  He's been through a myriad of occupations in his lifetime.

Township Supervisor.  Police officer.  U.S. Army drill sergeant.  Business owner.  

But he's been an electrician first and foremost.

Learning this trade in the Army, my dad always had an aptitude for science and mathematics, having excelled at both while in high school.  He received his first car at age 14, because it would take him two years to get it repaired and ready by the time he got his driver's license.  That tradition was passed to me in kind.

He also built the house he's been in for the past 33 years.  By that I mean not hiring a contractor to do the work for him.  I mean getting his hands dirty, using power tools, hammer and nails to put it up himself, buying materials little by little in cash to get everything done from the footing to the shingles on the roof.

His neighbors took notice.  My dad never had to go to the neighbors' for anything.  They usually came over, to see what he was doing and how he was doing it.  Then they would try the same thing themselves.

Sometimes it ended in disaster.

Thus, my dad quickly gained a reputation not only as an electrician, but the neighborhood handyman.  It was a reputation cultivated over two generations.

His father before him did the same thing.  Purchasing the family homestead where he lived from 1955 until his death in 2006 (Grandma still lives there today at 93), it was little more than a roach-infested filling station at the time that had gone out of business.  My dad was born in the house next door to it, as was his older sister and younger brother.

Though raising five children on a crane operator's salary, Grandpa fixed it up little by little, until it bore no resemblance at all to what it once was.  He also rescued discarded appliances and stripped them of their salvageable parts.  Who knows, he might need them one day.

"I NEVER throw anything away!" he exclaimed one day.

I guess you could say he was one of the first 'hoarders', but none of the parts he stockpiled found their way into the house any further than his workshop.  They usually took their place in the three 'shanties' he had on his property.  Car radios, electric fan motors, sweepers, gas caps, spark plug wires, you name it, he had it. Fred Sanford (or Albert Steptoe to my British friends) would have been envious.

As the years went by, Dad (and Grandpa before him) was usually called upon to help a neighbor out with a problem.  Whether it was a short circuit or legal problem, he never turned anyone away, nor did he ever ask for a dime or call in a favor.

And more often than not, he's taken for granted.

Many neighbors often drop by his garage to visit and chat.  One is a friend from his days as a township police officer.  The misanthropic are often misunderstood, and this fellow is no exception.  He can be brash and downright abrasive, but would give the shirt off his back if you needed it and without a second thought.

Dad and Tom had talked about the ingratitude of a 'grantee' one day, but neither of them really let it bother them all that much.

"You know Freddy," said Tom, "when we get to Heaven, I think that gate's gonna swing a little easier for us."

My dad just smiled and nodded.

I still call on my dad every once in a while when I'm having a problem that I don't think I can tackle myself.

He's always been willing to help, and while he can't do much electrical work anymore these days, he's willing to try.  I just have to remember to watch carefully to make sure I know how to do it in the future...for the day will come where I'll have to do it for myself or possibly someone else.

And he will always leave here with a thank you and a bottle of wine...minimum.

NEXT WEEK:  Shoot first

Why Are We All Here?

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  No "Ken's Korner" last week due to internet connection problems. Thank you for your patience.


The age-old question that mankind has sought the answer to for centuries.

Linda Fiorentino's character asks it to God-in-female-human-form, played by Alanis Morrisette, in the 1999 film "Dogma".  The reply is a simple tweak of Fiorentino's nose by the deity with no explanation.

As I grow older, I become aware of the fact that I've already lived half of my life expectancy here on this planet.  Before marriage and family, I had no fear of death.

I still don't.  Through my faith, I know what's on the other side.  If given a choice, no one really wants to die. But I worry about the loved ones I will leave behind come my Judgment Day.  Namely my wife and daughter.

Mankind's greatest dread is the knowledge of its own mortality.  

I have lost three relatives to cancer.  My godfather and second cousin at 49.  Another second cousin at 52. My maternal grandmother at 54.  My great-uncle at 59.  While those deaths were smoking-environmental related, it never ceases to cross my mind as to how many others have died of a terminal illness without knowing they had one until it was too late for medical intervention.

More than four months ago, I changed jobs.  I had gone from working days to evenings, and now not sitting down to a traditional dinner with my family, and consuming less wine, I've managed to lose a few pounds, and others have taken notice of it.

Since I turned 40, I've made annual checkups part of my life.  My doctor, who's the same age as me, is going through the same careful navigation to stay healthy in our advancing years.

One day, having done the necessary fasting and abstention from alcohol, I went to have some bloodwork done the morning of our annual trip to Kennywood Park.  As it was approaching the time for my annual physical, I wanted to get that done and out of the way before I called to schedule my appointment.

They beat me to the punch a little over 24 hours later, when I got the call as I was preparing my daughter's lunch.

"It's about your thyroid", the woman in my doctor's office said to me over the phone.

My thyroid?  My wife was born without one.  I double-checked to make absolutely sure it was me they were talking about, as we both go to the same doctor.

They were.

My mind flashed back to my job change and the change in my eating and drinking habits that went with the new work schedule. Was that all it was, or is this something more serious?

Whatever the matter, my mind raced through the fact that I needed to remind myself that I was not a young person anymore, and that I'd better be ready to deal with matters like these sooner, rather than later.

That's not to say that the moment of fear, anxiety, and other emotions didn't have an effect on me.

For a while, I became patient with Savannah getting distracted from practicing her letters and numbers.  I became aware of the time I had with her...and all my loved ones, for that matter.

And the clock ticking those seconds away resonated in my head much more loudly.

I just turned 44.  My former boss was at this same age when he had two heart attacks in succession.  If it happened to him, it could very well happen to me.  I never lost sight of that.  An esteemed colleague of mine dropped dead of a heart attack at 53 while working a charity event.  Another died at 49 after years of fighting heart disease.  Another colleague just recently announced he was cancer free, while another succumbed to cancer as it appeared he was beating it.

I even asked for prayers on Facebook, thinking of the worst once I walked into the doctor's office.
Turned out not to be so bad.
My doctor and I are the same age, and are going through the same age-related health concerns.  My thyroid numbers concerned him and my cholesterol was up a point.  He was simply checking to see if I had any symptoms that I might have avoided calling him about.
But we went down the list, and he gave me a thorough exam.
"We'll keep an eye on the bloodwork," he said.  As long as I wasn't puking or passing blood, it was all good.
This is what convinced me that I have a good doctor, the fact that he was concerned enough about my well-being to order me into the office to catch anything before it had a chance to materialize.
Or metastatize.
You don't find that level of dedication in a doctor these days.
Well done, Dr. Fiorina.  You have me for life as a patient.

NEXT WEEK:  Heaven's Gate

Connection Perception...Part II

We left off last week with a bit of a history lesson of what led to social media dominating the electronic landscape as it does today.
As I had stated last week, a friend had engaged in a discussion with another about how social media is more of a disconnector than a re-connector.  He posted this on his Facebook profile and solicited responses in kind.
It was a matter that I hadn't given much thought until I read the responses.  I was surprised to read what I did, but then not so surprised as I began to understand it.
The responses ran the gamut.  Reconnector...renewing old friendships across the miles.  Disconnector...the depreciation of the meaning of the word 'friend'.  Reconnector...a more efficient way to communicate. Disconnector...you learn more negative qualities about that person whose friend request you accepted.
Reconnector...for those who work long hours with little to no time for letters or phone calls. Disconnector...those stupid games!
I'll digress on that one.  I do like "Words With Friends".
But are we becoming a generation that has become more comfortable with misanthropy than real social interaction?
Ted Danson's character on the former CBS sitcom "Becker" would happily agree with the former of the two.
In social situations, when we disagree, there is less of a tendency anymore to 'agree to disagree', and more to separate ourselves from that person altogether or even react violently, whether it's verbal or physical in nature.
I know this because in this very forum, I have taken stands on views that have been to say the least, controversial.  While some supported me, others spewed vitriol in my direction and de-friended me, never wanting anything to do with me again.  The remaining messaged me privately asking me to help them understand why I took the stand I took, because they valued me as a friend and didn't want to lose me.
Notwithstanding, my backbone remains intact.
For the past 25 years, I worked in the radio broadcasting industry, and I spent more than half of my career as a journalist.  Objectivity wasn't an option, but a tool necessary to do your job successfully.
And I believe I have been just that.  Though objectivity sometimes carries no weight with the bull-headed so steadfast in their beliefs that they see no room for anyone in their lives whose beliefs are different than their own.
Among my family and friends, and I don't mean the ones on Facebook, there are whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, rich, poor, atheists, agnostics, Christians, Jews, homosexuals, bisexuals, transgendereds, high school dropouts, scholars, tradesmen, professionals, artisans, executives, ex-convicts, and law enforcement officers.
Muslims too.  "OMG...he's a terrorist!!!"  I can see it now.  Grow up.
Just about every one of them would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it.
There's positives and negatives to social media.  Do the negatives outweigh the positives?  I believe they do.
But then again, how long can you carry on an in-person conversation with another before life gets in the way and you have to leave, wishing 'I would have loved to talk about that some more'.
When I joined the planning committee for my high school class's 25th reunion, none of us ever would have dreamed that the number of attendees would be less than half of those who came to our 20th.
Nonetheless, we still had a great turnout, with many traveling hundreds of miles to be there.  But I'm sure that social media played a role in determining whether or not many of our classmates were going to show up.
Some are content to live their lives vicariously through others or see the pictures of what someone is doing rather than going out and having these experiences on their own.  Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but why not go beyond a thousand?
You may have received a 'friend request' that you accepted with some degree of reluctance because it was a person you may not have cared for years ago.  And as you browsed that person's profile, you may realize you may have misjudged that person.
Or that you were right about them all along and nothing's changed.
Employers are finding social media to be a useful tool in screening potential work candidates, or giving them grounds to fire an existing employee.
I like Facebook.  It gives me an opportunity to share my life with others I don't get to see as much as I would like.  Photos, this weekly blog, the occasional trip, my love of wine, things like that.
I don't do Twitter.  I personally don't find my life all that interesting to 'tweet' about every single action I have going on.  One form of social media that's fairly low maintenance is enough.
For everyone.  I don't care who you are.
Anything beyond that is overboard.
I first started with MySpace.  Once I learned that Facebook gravitated to a more mature crowd, I migrated there and shut down my MySpace profile.
If I spend that much time on social media, all I'll be 'tweeting' about is how much time I spend on social media.  It doesn't make sense to me.
So what's my final answer, disconnect or reconnect?
It's all a matter of perception, and it boils down to this:
With great power, comes great responsibility.
Make of that what you will.



NEXT WEEK:  The Ticking Clock

Connection Perception...Part I

An old friend of mine from high school posed this question on his Facebook page just a few weeks ago.

He and a friend were discussing how social media is a disconnector and not a reconnector.

A very thought-provoking argument, Michael.  Challenge accepted!

The root argument is this...are we relying on social media to supplant social interaction?

Let's think about the oldest form of social media there was before social media.

Huh?  

I'm getting around to that.  Just humor me for a moment.

The church was the cornerstone of every community.  It was the place to gather for worship, and fellowship before and after the Sunday (temple on Saturday) service.  With the rise of electronic media and more secular thinking among today's society, the church is slowly losing its grip on that.  And churches have been around for...well, forever.

Oh, let's also not forget the stay-at-home Mom.  America's social calendar personified.

Then came newspaper.  The telephone.  Radio and television.  Then the personal computer.

While there is some debate over whether or not IBM co-founder Thomas J. Watson Sr. actually said "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers" in 1943, I doubt even he would have believed that these devices, once large enough to fill an entire floor of an office building, would have shrunk to the size of a notebook, with similar capabilities found on cellular telephones, and be available in just about every home worldwide.

It began in the 1970s following the introduction of the microprocessor, though the personal computer as we know it today would not begin entering homes until the start of the 1980s.

Even then, the devices were used for little more other than playing games or as word processors. The latter would eventually supplant typewriters, though some of those devices are still in use today.

With the increase in the number of personal computers entering homes, then came the internet.

The internet as we know it today has been around for a little more than two decades now.  However, the concept of networking computers with one another had been around for at least two decades prior to that, though limited in scope to only government, educational, and scientific entities.  As more computers entered homes in the 1980s, more 'hackers' found ways to infiltrate computer networks if they were fortunate enough to own a dial-up modem.  

Then someone thought of a way to bring the hackers out of hiding.  Thus the birth of the World Wide Web.

While some hackers are still underground, others are working legitimately to combat what they had become experts at over the years and now getting paid for it.  The birth of the IT department.

Email was praised as a means for those who didn't have the time to devote to sitting down, finding a piece of paper and envelope, go to the post office and get stamps and THEN put the finished product in a mailbox for pickup the next day.  Once you bought your monthly subscription to AOL, you could visit any of the free email sites and set up your own account immediately.

I've had my hotmail address for 15 years now.  

You could start a letter to a friend, and if you didn't have time to finish, you could save the draft and return to it later, then finish and send it off.  

Those who didn't like to write letters now found themselves with time to email.  Even those who highly valued the art of penmanship like my mother (who is a left-handed calligraphy artist), found themselves having to assimilate to electronic mail if they intended to stay in touch with family and friends across the miles.

Some even took this a step further and spent the money needed to develop their own website, make money with it by doing something they enjoyed (blogging, photography, selling of crafts, etc.) and quit their hated day jobs.

Entertainers also plied their trades through websites of their own.  But what was left for those who couldn't afford a site of their own, yet still wanted to share their lives with others?

Enter Facebook, MySpace, Twitter.

And we'll touch on that next week.

NEXT WEEK:  Part II

Center of Government

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have." - Thomas Jefferson

Think about the third President's words for a moment, and realize just how big government really is.  Especially here...at just about every level.
I'm not just talking about our elected leaders and appointed officers, but the staffs that support them.
And the mounds of paperwork that make it all run smoothly.  
Or so it seems.
Here in Butler County, Pennsylvania, where I've been based for the past seven years, our county commissioners have come under fire for an annex they wish to attach to the county courthouse because they're running out of room.
In this forum, I'm not going to chide nor praise by name any of the three commissioners currently in office for this reason: many of the county's residents have already formed their own personal opinions of each of the commissioners.  Their character flaws or gifts are not the issue here.  It's all about money and how it's spent.
Just about every county seat in this country has outgrown its original courthouse.  They either add another building onto it like in Westmoreland and Butler Counties, vacate it completely and move into an entirely new one, like in Indiana County or in Seneca County, Ohio, or keep the existing building and rent or buy space in neighboring buildings that are but a short walk away, as is the case with Armstrong and Jefferson Counties.  
Since those buildings were first erected, populations were beginning to grow in the areas that surrounded them. With population growth, there comes problems that create a need for "growing the government" in kind.
Public safety.  Social welfare.  Parks and Recreation.  Public works and the relative infrastructure.  Those are just a few examples.
Fifty years ago, the ills that face our society today simply didn't exist.  That's not to say that things like drug abuse, rape, incest, assault, robbery and theft, and murder weren't around, but they were in far fewer numbers than what they are today, and much went unreported or journalists were told to shy away.
In many cases, much of these crimes involve suspects and victims known to each other, and not random crimes committed by strangers.  These are crimes borne out of bad choices made by mature adults capable of taking responsibility for their own actions, yet many choose to make victims out of suspects and place the burden of it all on society's shoulders.
A great example of this is Children and Youth Services.  This agency has been praised, feared, damned, and celebrated because of the unenviable job its people are tasked to do.
The essence of the job involves removing children from dangerous situations, and also removing them from society where they pose a danger to others.
The commissioners say that this particular agency has outgrown its space and needs room to expand.  Not in terms of staff, but the mounds of paperwork from the multitude of files that have to be at near-arms-reach of a caseworker at any given moment.
Thus the basis of the need for the new building, known as the "Government Center Annex", that two of the three commissioners want to attach to the existing Government Center, which is the courthouse annex (an annex for the annex, yes).  The third wants to purchase a building down the street that he claims will cost less than building new.  The two others claim that cost will be inflated by necessary construction upgrades to bring that building to suit the needs of the CYS office.
A former co-worker of mine inspired me to write this, saying that the money used to buy or build the building could be better spent on fixing roads or giving police departments K-9 officers or other tools necessary to combat the growing threat of drug-related crimes in town.
I couldn't agree more.
Unfortunately, it's not that simple.  Even more unfortunate than that, is that the elected leaders at the county level often get an unfair rap that they don't deserve.
Like other municipal governments, counties are restricted on how they raise revenue on their own, and spend money they receive at the state and federal level.  It must be documented in painstaking detail.  Not only that, they're required by state law to provide human service programs, yet be totally on their own insofar as raising money to fund those programs.
Unfunded mandates, if you will.  They're not the only ones.  Special education programs that school districts are mandated to have are all funded through local real estate tax revenue.
When more people depend on 'the system' to carry them through life, these programs are forced to grow in size, because the caseload size grows.  Though western Pennsylvania has experienced a 'brain drain' over the past two decades with our native-born population fleeing to a more prosperous job climate, we've become a haven for welfare-dependents from other states who come here after they've exhausted their benefits from their own points of origin.
Thus, western Pennsylvania has earned the nickname "Pennsyltucky".
The paperwork involved with these programs, along with CYS and juvenile courts is monumental...more than you could ever imagine.
But we could make those forms and that paperwork electronic, right?  
Not that simple.
Unlike the federal government, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania does not have a Paperwork Reduction Act, geared towards making forms simpler and only available through electronic means.
We need one.
Though Common Pleas (in Pennsylvania, circuit court elsewhere) Judges are housed in a county-owned edifice and are elected by county residents, the county has little to no jurisdiction over the judges.  They collect a state-issued paycheck and answer to the state.
And Judges want to see real paperwork written in one's own handwriting, if that's the case.  The reasoning behind it is because our justice system is so detail-oriented that one little typo or missing word could make the difference between a conviction or acquittal.
Case files need to be on live paper and have to be easily accessible under rules of criminal procedure in just about every state governing disclosure in the court system.  
In case this week's column is too long, it's the shortest, yet most concise answer I can give regarding this subject.  
That money could be better spent elsewhere.  But state law says it can't be.  That's what needs to change, and it's up to us to lobby our legislators to make this change happen.  If they can't do it, we can elect someone who will.
When we talk about spending millions of dollars for a new courthouse annex for the existing courthouse annex built over a decade ago, BUT have no money to buy the City of Butler a K-9 officer (money for that was raised mostly through private donations spearheaded by a local businessman), yeah, something's wrong!
The county eventually did kick in some cash towards the dog after it became clear that this is what private citizens in Butler wanted, and proved it through a very successful fundraising campaign.
There's also bickering over office space sizes and parking.  Let's settle this once and for all.  All department heads get the same office size!  Your subordinates are doing the legwork, they need room for all the required paperwork.  As for parking, let's not put the cart before the horse.  I think employees will take any free off-street parking that's available to them.  Umbrellas and overshoes were invented for this reason.
Ron, I thank you for your challenge.  
I hope this gives you the answer you were looking for.



NEXT WEEK:  Disconnect or Reconnect?