Not too long ago the nation, after much back and forth, arrived at a watered-down version of health care, which put us on a somewhat more equal footing with the other industrial democracies in the world. It wasn't Medicare-For-All, but it was a start. At least some of the egregious holes in our decrepit health care system would be plugged up. People with pre-existing conditions would not be denied coverage, and a universal component, health care exchanges, would be put in place, even though run through the needless, parasitic gauntlet of publicly-traded health care middlemen/insurers. Medicare is delivered to our citizens on a relative shoestring of overhead costs, generally reported as three or four percent, while the Affordable Care Act capped for-profit middlemen at 18% of overhead.
The primary objective of the Affordable Care Act was to move the millions of Americans without health coverage to a place where they did not face that vulnerability. Well over half of personal bankruptcies are the result of an avalanche of medical bills hitting the uninsured.
Because the United States has refused the common sense solution of the single-payer health coverage model, we rely on an employer-provided health coverage model. In a fairly straightforward provision the ACA set out, employer plans would cover all full time workers and part-time workers who clock in at 30 or more hours per week, or 130 hours per month.
As the deadline for meeting the requirements of the law approaches, and even as the deadline for the implementation of the law is now moved back another year to January 1, 2015, employers are faced with a choice. Shall they meet the spirit of the law or will they duck behind the letter of the law?
Rather than meeting the spirit of the law by providing health care to part time workers, some employers are choosing the letter of the law to mean, "let's cut hours and keep the workers outside the definition of the law." That may be helpful in padding the bottom line for private companies, or avoiding revenue increases in the case of government workers, but it does not meet the intent of the ACA mandate.
Many part time workers can only find part time work, while some, because of family obligations, choose to only work part time. The part time status is thus both a burden and a blessing. The burden/blessing equation flows both ways, however. Employers pay out less in wages, and so stretch their budgets for greater profit or, in the case of public employers, for tighter efficiency and avoidance of fiscal responsibility.
As we approach the budget season for the City of New Albany, we need to keep in mind that although the Affordable Care Act is a weak version of what we need in this country, it is a start. We owe an obligation to the City's workers, both full time and part time, to provide for them what the law demands. We don't need to play the Artful Dodger and duck our responsibilities. By scheduling part time workers to fewer hours, we may force valuable employees out the door toward the door of a more equitable employer. In the process, we may lose experience, continuity and commitment which will cost more to replace than simply meeting the standards of our nation's laws, as we should.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Sunday, June 2, 2013
An Invitation
Tomorrow night the New Albany Common Council will consider a resolution (R-13-09) in support of mining Floyd County's past; not a search for nature's riches hidden below ground, but rather a search for elucidation of our predecessors' days buried by time.
Some weeks ago I was contacted by the cousin of a constituent who has the opportunity to compete for a grant through the U.S. Department of the Interior to engage in archaeological sleuthing in counties that have received relatively little attention. In our area, Floyd County has had less study than either its eastern or western neighbors. Rebecca VanSessen, the cousin of the constituent, lived in Floyd County as a child and identified her childhood environs as a place which might fit the criteria of the grant. She is a research associate at the University of Indianapolis, and along with Dr. Chris Moore they hope to demonstrate the worth of their project which can bring to light facts about the ancient inhabitants of our county.
During a brief meeting and discussion over a modern version of an ancient beverage, Dr. Moore mentioned a term I had never heard, Industrial Archaeology. This study of relatively recent artifacts can also help us understand some of the early settlers here who lived a life more akin to our own today, yet still blurred by the passage of time.
The two archaeologists will speak at an informational session before the meeting tomorrow night. They will outline some of their plans and discuss the richness of our past. Since I've had the pleasure of meeting with them already I can attest that what they have to say will be interesting and worth the time to attend.
The informational session will be held in the Strassweg Auditorium in the New Albany Floyd County Public Library beginning at 6:30PM. Around 7:15 Council members will cross the street to the City County Building for the regular Council meeting at 7:30PM.
Some weeks ago I was contacted by the cousin of a constituent who has the opportunity to compete for a grant through the U.S. Department of the Interior to engage in archaeological sleuthing in counties that have received relatively little attention. In our area, Floyd County has had less study than either its eastern or western neighbors. Rebecca VanSessen, the cousin of the constituent, lived in Floyd County as a child and identified her childhood environs as a place which might fit the criteria of the grant. She is a research associate at the University of Indianapolis, and along with Dr. Chris Moore they hope to demonstrate the worth of their project which can bring to light facts about the ancient inhabitants of our county.
During a brief meeting and discussion over a modern version of an ancient beverage, Dr. Moore mentioned a term I had never heard, Industrial Archaeology. This study of relatively recent artifacts can also help us understand some of the early settlers here who lived a life more akin to our own today, yet still blurred by the passage of time.
The two archaeologists will speak at an informational session before the meeting tomorrow night. They will outline some of their plans and discuss the richness of our past. Since I've had the pleasure of meeting with them already I can attest that what they have to say will be interesting and worth the time to attend.
The informational session will be held in the Strassweg Auditorium in the New Albany Floyd County Public Library beginning at 6:30PM. Around 7:15 Council members will cross the street to the City County Building for the regular Council meeting at 7:30PM.
Monday, April 15, 2013
One Way, Out
The Saturday News and Tribune gave prominent place to the idea that one of New Albany's anchors to a bygone era may soon be cut loose. The time for one way streets has come and mercilessly held on here. Call it ennui, call it too much money that we won't spend to turn traffic lights around, or call it "by God I bought these plaid bell bottoms and I'm going to get my money's worth out of them", but please, just call a halt to the one way streets in New Albany.
This town has much to offer when it recognizes what we have and then follows through with recognition of what to do with it. The twin catalysts of the YMCA coming to downtown New Albany, and the delineation of the Riverfront Development District, a.k.a. the cheap liquor license zone, led to a vibrancy in downtown that hasn't been seen in decades. The lesson here is, give people a reason to come downtown and, voila, they'll come downtown.
Could a possible counterforce be at work when we give people what they don't want? Or, could we inadvertently be sending out kryptonitic vibes about downtown when we establish traffic patterns which do nothing so much as move people through town with greater alacrity than a coffee house bathroom break after a double espresso and a bran muffin? Spring Street pretty much says to those who happen upon it from elsewhere, "keep moving folks, nothing to see here, get on back to your homes and places of business." And, there's a further bit of unspoken advice, "wrap yourself in a couple tons of steel if you want to navigate these streets." Between Silver Street and Clark County there is nothing to slow cars down, and this is a two-way section of the street. Towards the other end of Spring, at the government center and the Library, the one-way street is filled with drivers jacked up with visions of the Big Green sign leading out of New Albany; many of these people are focused on a goal that does not always see, or make allowances for, the un-carred.
It's good to look toward removing the one way signs around town. But, maybe the one way should refer not simply to a street direction or traffic pattern but to THE single way we look at ordering society. And that one way is, how can we, as humans, placate the motorized beings which dictate how our cities are gutted to make more room for the resting oil-eaters, how can we reorder our lives to make not only spatial but psychological room for our internal combustion buddies, how much more of here will be written off because we can so easily drive to there?
New Albany will soon face an increase in traffic to levels we could not imagine in our worst-case-scenario wargames, due to the closing of lanes on I-65 and following on the heels of that increase will be the onslaught of the bargain hunters who see New Albany as a No-Tolls detour around the EEC and I-65. ( as an aside...I originally thought the EEC referred to the East End Connector, apparently it actually refers to the European Economic Community, in recognition of the two socialist powerhouses, Germany and France,(( FRANCE, Governor Pence, did you hear that? the cheese-eating, wine-swilling, bidet-using, surrender monkeys are coming to bail our cheap, weak-kneed, Tea Bagger butts out of the fire)) which are funding the Indiana share of the bridge. Kentucky, which has no truck with socialists, won't participate in the EEC financing scheme in the same dilettantish way Indiana will.) Because drivers will be hell bent on a smooth passage through New Albany, they'll have little use for our quaint attempts at catching their attention. This increase in drivers will not add to the general welfare, except perhaps for some sated State Police appetites for new customers on thoroughly urban thoroughfares. The streets, with no built in safety mechanisms, calming devices, or calming practices, such as two way traffic, will be less safe than today, less welcoming to pedestrians or cyclists.
It is difficult to underestimate the sheer hell of noise pollution the citizens of New Albany who live within, and no phrase is better, earshot of the expressways will experience during the construction and preparation for construction of the bridges.
So, mark me down as a firm "aye" vote on any attempt the administration makes toward eliminating one way streets. Further mark me down as a solid and enthusiastic "aye" on any attempts the administration may offer on helping New Albany take a progressive stand in reordering our city away from automobile-centric development and toward human-scale development.
This town has much to offer when it recognizes what we have and then follows through with recognition of what to do with it. The twin catalysts of the YMCA coming to downtown New Albany, and the delineation of the Riverfront Development District, a.k.a. the cheap liquor license zone, led to a vibrancy in downtown that hasn't been seen in decades. The lesson here is, give people a reason to come downtown and, voila, they'll come downtown.
Could a possible counterforce be at work when we give people what they don't want? Or, could we inadvertently be sending out kryptonitic vibes about downtown when we establish traffic patterns which do nothing so much as move people through town with greater alacrity than a coffee house bathroom break after a double espresso and a bran muffin? Spring Street pretty much says to those who happen upon it from elsewhere, "keep moving folks, nothing to see here, get on back to your homes and places of business." And, there's a further bit of unspoken advice, "wrap yourself in a couple tons of steel if you want to navigate these streets." Between Silver Street and Clark County there is nothing to slow cars down, and this is a two-way section of the street. Towards the other end of Spring, at the government center and the Library, the one-way street is filled with drivers jacked up with visions of the Big Green sign leading out of New Albany; many of these people are focused on a goal that does not always see, or make allowances for, the un-carred.
It's good to look toward removing the one way signs around town. But, maybe the one way should refer not simply to a street direction or traffic pattern but to THE single way we look at ordering society. And that one way is, how can we, as humans, placate the motorized beings which dictate how our cities are gutted to make more room for the resting oil-eaters, how can we reorder our lives to make not only spatial but psychological room for our internal combustion buddies, how much more of here will be written off because we can so easily drive to there?
New Albany will soon face an increase in traffic to levels we could not imagine in our worst-case-scenario wargames, due to the closing of lanes on I-65 and following on the heels of that increase will be the onslaught of the bargain hunters who see New Albany as a No-Tolls detour around the EEC and I-65. ( as an aside...I originally thought the EEC referred to the East End Connector, apparently it actually refers to the European Economic Community, in recognition of the two socialist powerhouses, Germany and France,(( FRANCE, Governor Pence, did you hear that? the cheese-eating, wine-swilling, bidet-using, surrender monkeys are coming to bail our cheap, weak-kneed, Tea Bagger butts out of the fire)) which are funding the Indiana share of the bridge. Kentucky, which has no truck with socialists, won't participate in the EEC financing scheme in the same dilettantish way Indiana will.) Because drivers will be hell bent on a smooth passage through New Albany, they'll have little use for our quaint attempts at catching their attention. This increase in drivers will not add to the general welfare, except perhaps for some sated State Police appetites for new customers on thoroughly urban thoroughfares. The streets, with no built in safety mechanisms, calming devices, or calming practices, such as two way traffic, will be less safe than today, less welcoming to pedestrians or cyclists.
It is difficult to underestimate the sheer hell of noise pollution the citizens of New Albany who live within, and no phrase is better, earshot of the expressways will experience during the construction and preparation for construction of the bridges.
So, mark me down as a firm "aye" vote on any attempt the administration makes toward eliminating one way streets. Further mark me down as a solid and enthusiastic "aye" on any attempts the administration may offer on helping New Albany take a progressive stand in reordering our city away from automobile-centric development and toward human-scale development.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
techNicoloR nightmAre
Since the news of the slaughter of school children of Newtown, Connecticut began to assault our senses last December, the nation has tried to feel its way to a place where such tragedy is unknown, or certainly less likely.
Since December 14, 2012 at least 3,346 more Americans have died by gunfire. Some of these could be suicides, some could be accidents, some of the people shot were committing crimes, some were armed, some were not. The lobbying arm of the gun and ammunition manufacturing industry, often referred to as the National Rifle Association, has fought the nation's immediate expression of revulsion against guns after the Newtown massacre to a draw. Many polls show in excess of 2/3 of Americans want tighter restrictions on the sale of guns, equivalent numbers want other curbs, such as fewer bullets per clip, tracking of gun show sales, and universal background checks for gun purchasers. Many pols show no spine when confronted by the fanatical gun lobby; Tea Party senators pledge a stonewall defense, through filibuster, against even taking a vote on gun legislation.
The gun apologists dissemble and assure us that, guns don't kill people, people kill people. So, cigarettes don't kill people either? People smoking cigarettes, kill people (themselves). The Max Headroom of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, tautologizes that the only thing that stops a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun.
Constantly ignored by the NRA is the fact that the United States is awash in guns. Perhaps coincidentally, the United States leads the industrialized world in gun deaths, yet LaPierre wants no restrictions, which means he believes we have not yet reached a sufficient number of guns to be safe. It is difficult to know just how many guns will finally spell safety, but be certain, the NRA will continue to explore those frontiers and help us add to the stockpile. Logic tells us that a floor strewn with tacks increases the danger that we will step on one, so sensible people don't throw more and more tacks on the floor, and walk barefoot. Why doesn't the same logic apply to guns?
We seem now to face the loss of resolve the nation showed after the Newtown massacre. The spineless, venal, craven, caviling toadies of the NRA wish to sweep the tragedy under the rug. Their motto is "out of sight, out of mind." And their goal is to get back to the business of arming the USA to the teeth, thus squaring the deal they made with the lobbyists. Unfortunately, their stonewalling may succeed. The fresh graves of Newtown's cemeteries, and the fresher ones across the nation since that day, apparently lack shock value. The gun lobby would have us believe these graves are found in the rounding errors of democracy, a frontier where it's every man for himself and each of us must live in fear of our freedom being stolen.
I sincerely believe that if our elected officials in Washington, and in state capitols around the nation would do just one thing to commemorate the victims in Newtown, we would break the back of the NRA, its insidious hold on our democracy, and our collective safety. The one thing, the one action we could take to pry the cold, cold, fingers of the NRA from the neck of our nation is to insist our elected representatives look at the crime scene photographs of the children gunned down in the school house massacre. Bear witness to the gory, bloody, hideous dismemberment wrought by modern military weapons, see what the relentless pummeling of machine gun fire does to the flesh of these innocents. Bear witness to that carnage, Senator McConnell and a dozen more of your sycophants, then look into the eyes of the parents who buried those children and parrot LaPierre's crap that the only thing that stops a bad man with a gun, is a good man with a gun. Then, tell me how you sleep at night.
Since December 14, 2012 at least 3,346 more Americans have died by gunfire. Some of these could be suicides, some could be accidents, some of the people shot were committing crimes, some were armed, some were not. The lobbying arm of the gun and ammunition manufacturing industry, often referred to as the National Rifle Association, has fought the nation's immediate expression of revulsion against guns after the Newtown massacre to a draw. Many polls show in excess of 2/3 of Americans want tighter restrictions on the sale of guns, equivalent numbers want other curbs, such as fewer bullets per clip, tracking of gun show sales, and universal background checks for gun purchasers. Many pols show no spine when confronted by the fanatical gun lobby; Tea Party senators pledge a stonewall defense, through filibuster, against even taking a vote on gun legislation.
The gun apologists dissemble and assure us that, guns don't kill people, people kill people. So, cigarettes don't kill people either? People smoking cigarettes, kill people (themselves). The Max Headroom of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, tautologizes that the only thing that stops a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun.
Constantly ignored by the NRA is the fact that the United States is awash in guns. Perhaps coincidentally, the United States leads the industrialized world in gun deaths, yet LaPierre wants no restrictions, which means he believes we have not yet reached a sufficient number of guns to be safe. It is difficult to know just how many guns will finally spell safety, but be certain, the NRA will continue to explore those frontiers and help us add to the stockpile. Logic tells us that a floor strewn with tacks increases the danger that we will step on one, so sensible people don't throw more and more tacks on the floor, and walk barefoot. Why doesn't the same logic apply to guns?
We seem now to face the loss of resolve the nation showed after the Newtown massacre. The spineless, venal, craven, caviling toadies of the NRA wish to sweep the tragedy under the rug. Their motto is "out of sight, out of mind." And their goal is to get back to the business of arming the USA to the teeth, thus squaring the deal they made with the lobbyists. Unfortunately, their stonewalling may succeed. The fresh graves of Newtown's cemeteries, and the fresher ones across the nation since that day, apparently lack shock value. The gun lobby would have us believe these graves are found in the rounding errors of democracy, a frontier where it's every man for himself and each of us must live in fear of our freedom being stolen.
I sincerely believe that if our elected officials in Washington, and in state capitols around the nation would do just one thing to commemorate the victims in Newtown, we would break the back of the NRA, its insidious hold on our democracy, and our collective safety. The one thing, the one action we could take to pry the cold, cold, fingers of the NRA from the neck of our nation is to insist our elected representatives look at the crime scene photographs of the children gunned down in the school house massacre. Bear witness to the gory, bloody, hideous dismemberment wrought by modern military weapons, see what the relentless pummeling of machine gun fire does to the flesh of these innocents. Bear witness to that carnage, Senator McConnell and a dozen more of your sycophants, then look into the eyes of the parents who buried those children and parrot LaPierre's crap that the only thing that stops a bad man with a gun, is a good man with a gun. Then, tell me how you sleep at night.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
A Third A Third A Third
While the train carrying the effort to open the K & I Bridge to use by citizens has left the station, and before this metaphorical train goes too far down the track, alphabetically speaking, while we're still in the Cs, let's consider another C. The resolution recently passed by the New Albany Common Council suggested that the effort to open the K & I pursue "any and all means" to bring about that opening. To be sure, condemnation is one of the strategies which should be considered. But condemnation has an unsavory connotation which could lead to protracted legal entanglements which would not well serve any of the affected parties, neither New Albany and Louisville nor the railroad currently exercising control of the bridge.
Rifling through the kit bag of remedies to this conundrum another C comes to mind. This C would also require the expenditure of legal energy, possible redefinitions and reinterpretations of property law. But it may offer a less contentious solution which would allow the citizens north and south of the river and the railroad to live amicably as neighbors. Might it be possible to condo the bridge?
Under this alternative, the Norfolk Southern would divide the bridge into ownership units of the eastern automobile deck, the western auto deck and the middle rail bed and tracks. New Albany and Louisville could jointly purchase ownership of the auto decks while the Norfolk Southern would hold ownership of the rail road itself. Just as in a residential condominium a condo association would oversee the maintenance issues surrounding the condo project. Just as in a residential condo the several owners would be responsible for the maintenance on a percentage of occupancy basis. In the case of the bridge, the railroad as the largest unit owner would be responsible for the largest share of the maintenance costs. The condo bylaws would bind the owners of the shared property to certain rules and responsibilities just as those who share ownership in a residential or office condominium.
If this is a possible structure for this project, it might prove to be a quicker path to the goal of re-opening the bridge.
Rifling through the kit bag of remedies to this conundrum another C comes to mind. This C would also require the expenditure of legal energy, possible redefinitions and reinterpretations of property law. But it may offer a less contentious solution which would allow the citizens north and south of the river and the railroad to live amicably as neighbors. Might it be possible to condo the bridge?
Under this alternative, the Norfolk Southern would divide the bridge into ownership units of the eastern automobile deck, the western auto deck and the middle rail bed and tracks. New Albany and Louisville could jointly purchase ownership of the auto decks while the Norfolk Southern would hold ownership of the rail road itself. Just as in a residential condominium a condo association would oversee the maintenance issues surrounding the condo project. Just as in a residential condo the several owners would be responsible for the maintenance on a percentage of occupancy basis. In the case of the bridge, the railroad as the largest unit owner would be responsible for the largest share of the maintenance costs. The condo bylaws would bind the owners of the shared property to certain rules and responsibilities just as those who share ownership in a residential or office condominium.
If this is a possible structure for this project, it might prove to be a quicker path to the goal of re-opening the bridge.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Gratuitous Limbaugh Bashing? Why Not?
The environmentalist wackos over at The Huffington Post displayed this picture as part of a series of stupid, questionable, or laughable bits of graffiti. It was painted on some bridge, somewhere, by some stupid person who couldn't spell "dolphins", and who somehow tried to elevate his own sorry existence to a level higher than the dolphins he ineptly attempted to disparage. Which calls to mind that fan of dolphinry, the Oxymoron.
I don't know how many years ago the Supreme Ego that is Rush Limbaugh tried to elevate his sorry self above the level of his betters, the far-superior mammalian species he mocked--at least far superior to the Oxymoron*Limbaugh himself-- by stating, and I paraphrase here, "...if dolphins are so wonderful, so intelligent, why don't they have dolphin highways and go to dolphin hospitals. If they don't have them, if they can't take care of themselves, then screw 'em."
Perhaps Limbaugh has now wasted down to such a level that sentient beings no longer listen to his inane braying. Perhaps pointing out his past brayings is much ado about no one. But, I somehow think he still has street cred within the once-legitimate Republican party. So until the formerly-respectable party has flushed that particular floater away, he is still in the punch bowl of political discourse, still on the G.O.P.'s guest list and still a target for disparagement.
*Oxymoron in the sense of one who is a moron due to his use and abuse of Oxycontin, his lack of sympathy for others who have run afoul of the law for drug related crimes and now spend years in prison, and one who forced his hired help to illegally procure drugs for his habit thus insulating his sorry soul from culpability in his crimes; all while holding himself out as a paragon of rightness in its varied meanings.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Literally, How About a Yard Sale?
During the 2011 campaign, in this space, I had posted several items which I referred to as a "Nudge List". The ideas were ones I hoped to convince, connive or cajole the Mayor into taking up as his ideas. Admittedly, it's a roundabout process, but a few things are in the works.
So now, in light of the current situation surrounding the County's budget, which isn't good and which is widely covered in the Courier-Journal and The Tribune, I'd like to dust off the nudge list and add another, more timely, item.
Now that the City has staked out its own course on parks, and now that a recent bond issue has begun to take shape for various recreational projects such as a pool, a sports complex, and a soccer venue, and since the County now finds itself a touch short, maybe now the City should offer to take Community Park off the County's hands and in the process help it close the budget deficit it now faces. A good price would be $2.4 million.
All citizens of Floyd County could continue to avail themselves of the park's amenities, and the County would be off the hook for maintenance. The City has demonstrated a greater commitment to the parks throughout the years, so why not buy Community Park and let the County get its financial house in order?
So now, in light of the current situation surrounding the County's budget, which isn't good and which is widely covered in the Courier-Journal and The Tribune, I'd like to dust off the nudge list and add another, more timely, item.
Now that the City has staked out its own course on parks, and now that a recent bond issue has begun to take shape for various recreational projects such as a pool, a sports complex, and a soccer venue, and since the County now finds itself a touch short, maybe now the City should offer to take Community Park off the County's hands and in the process help it close the budget deficit it now faces. A good price would be $2.4 million.
All citizens of Floyd County could continue to avail themselves of the park's amenities, and the County would be off the hook for maintenance. The City has demonstrated a greater commitment to the parks throughout the years, so why not buy Community Park and let the County get its financial house in order?
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