Alzheimer's and the Health of Public Officials

Years ago, when covering Massachusetts public schools and the state’s education department for Bay State Parent, a monthly magazine, I had my own run-in when writing about the health of a public official. Instead of it being the governor, or even the president of the United States, it was the Bay State’s education commissioner. Mitchell Chester wielded a lot of power, overseeing the state’s K-12 public schools. 

 

If the teachers’ unions weren’t taking issue with him, it was the parents and others who thought they knew better than he about the best way to educate kids. I interviewed him a few times, and I always found him quite pleasant.

 

In fact, I often thought if the state board of education – to whom he reported – really wanted to sell what the Department was doing – pushing standardized testing, especially Common Core – they should have put on him on the road, doing more public speaking around the Commonwealth. He made a strong case for standardized testing -- “the system needs feedback" -- and he always did it with a smile. He was very engaging.

 

Tragically, back in 2017, he was diagnosed with cancer. The Department didn’t make the news public, but the board of education allowed Chester so much time away from the office they appointed one of the Education Department’s top leaders “acting commissioner.” The appointment and Chester’s health were kept out of the public eye.

 

Then, one Friday afternoon, an incontrovertible source called me. This individual had a lengthy professional history with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. They had worked alongside Chester for years and had also served, for many years, on the state’s board of education before retiring. They knew the state’s education Department quite well, and many in the Department fed them documents that weren’t supposed to be seen by the public; this source shared them with me. 

 

They didn’t make the Department look so good, showing that it was being supported, on occasion, financially by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation so it could enact certain policies – mostly to do with Common Core – they wouldn’t need to be run by the legislators on Beacon Hill for funding. (Talk about a threat to democracy!)

 

Of course, I wrote about it, and that put me on the Department’s well, let's say, "bad list." Not that I cared, of course. 

 

When I heard about the cancer diagnosis, it was a huge story. The Massachusetts Teachers Association knew something was wrong with him, too. As I recall, they were getting it from their members, plus, likely, the rumor mill. 

 

On Monday, I spoke again with my source. As on Friday, they confirmed their source was someone no one expected -- the acting commissioner. I quizzed the source about details about how the discussion came about and mentioned that this better be true. They swore it was. As for the details about their talk, it was surprising and somewhat comedic.

 

Of course, Bay State Parent’s editor and I were in touch on this issue with many phone calls. We saw this as a huge story that needed to be reported.

 

On Monday morning, I also called the state Education Department’s spokesperson. After we exchanged pleasantries, I asked her about the commissioner’s health, telling her what I knew. She promptly went into a 15-minute tirade, screaming that I was the worst reporter she ever met. I replied, saying the sources were solid and she had until 3 p.m. to provide a statement; otherwise, I said, we would update our website with the story -- as is. 

 

She provided a statement. We had a scoop. The commissioner died three weeks later. 

 

So, if a state education department can be highly defensive about its leader’s health, imagine what the Biden White House is going through. It has lots to lose, so they’re being as protective as possible about the president’s health. I’m not a Joe Biden fan. I’m not a Donald Trump fan. As a voter, I feel like that great social commentator and comedian Tom Lehrer once remarked, a "Christian Scientist with an appendicitis."

 

The WSJ’s story on the president’s health was likely as good and objective as could be expected. They quoted both sides. Could it have been better? I think so. But there’s always an editor – no matter if the media outlet sides with the left or the right – driving their reporters to get the story as quickly as possible.

 

As for Biden’s mental acuity, I’ll say this:  His actions, particularly the way he speaks, are reminiscent of the way my mother was just before she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. 

 

It’s important to keep in mind that President Reagan underwent the same scrutiny about his health during his re-election campaign in 1984, which Democrats were all too happy to discuss and push. His first debate appearance against former Vice President Mondale didn’t go so well, and it was thought he was in decline. Reagan acquitted himself in the second one, saying he wasn't about to take advantage of Mondale’s “youth and inexperience.” 

 

It generated several laughs, and Reagan waltzed into victory.

 

Imagine if the Biden campaign did the same.

Massachusetts & Covid-19

In the interest of self-quarantining, self-isolating and social distancing – and all the craziness this damn coronavirus requires – I send you this report from Massachusetts.

I admit I was caught flat-footed about this epidemic/pandemic two weeks ago due to a meeting and probably because I wasn’t paying much attention to Covid-19.  

After the meeting, I went to Shaw’s, the local grocer.  It was mobbed.  The entire town – population about 13,000 – was in a shark-like frenzy, snapping up whatever it could, from paper towels to toilet paper to cleaning supplies, especially sanitizing hand wipes.  It’s nearly out of eggs, and there was a substantial run on meat and pasta.

Up until yesterday, it was the same at every store – no toilet paper or paper towels and damn few cleaning supplies, even at Costco.  I was surprised to discover the local Target was out of printer paper.  So I went to Wal-Mart, where I found two boxes – totaling 10,000 sheets – for $60.00.  

There was a bright spot, however.  Wegman’s, another grocer, was selling paper towels and toilet paper on Friday.  To be sure, they put limits on how much customers could buy.  I snatched up one of each.

1984 or Ray Bradbury?

What’s worrisome is how much behavior has changed.  Several people wear surgical masks.  Where they once acknowledged one another with a friendly greeting, now it’s about avoidance in the aisles.  They scoot away, like sand crabs on a beach.

The state’s public K – 12 schools are closed until at least May 4 but, as I see it, the kids won’t see the inside of a classroom until late August or early September.  There’s some attempt at digital schooling but it’s limited to homework assignments sent via email.  There’s no such thing as video conferencing a class but word now is that's about to change.  I fear that high school graduation for many, including my sons, will be delayed by a year, maybe longer.

At least the liquor stores are open.  They’re deemed an “essential business” by the state’s government.  Although I'm suspicious about that.  I think state officials want us so drunk we won’t notice what they’re doing.

On Saturday, I noticed a blinking sign outside a town’s fire and police department.  It blinked, “Why are you out?” followed by “Go home.”

How is one supposed to take that message, especially if they work at a grocery store?  Or they own a liquor store?  Or, like a local baker, are holding onto to dear life to survive this crisis?

Will the fire and police department put them on their payroll or fund their businesses?

I'm also noticing civil disobedience.

A high school athletic field near me was closed in the middle of last week.  The week prior, it was filled with high school kids, parents and others as a place to stay in shape.  Then, it was shut down.  On Thursday and Friday, sunny days with temperatures in the 60s, a few people returned – despite the town’s order.  

Better yet, while driving on a house-lined street last Thursday, I saw a man, appearing to be in his 60s, sitting on a lawn chair in his driveway sipping a martini.  He was doing the same on Friday.  It seemed to be his way of telling the establishment to shove it. 

Those of us wishing to take a walk are likely to become Leonard Mead in Ray Bradbury’s “The Pedestrian.”  The police will arrest us because all we want to do is live.

Politics of You, Me and Us

My 12-year-old precocious son asked me about last night’s election results, just before he went off to school today.

In particular, he asked about my party affiliation.  When I was 18, I said, I registered with the Democrats but soon, thereafter, realized that was a mistake. 

“Because you thought they were a little nutty,” he asked.

“Maybe,” I replied. “But it didn’t make me run into the arms of the Republican Party either.”

Then I said I’m with the Democrats when they talk about civil and human rights but I’m with the Republicans when they talk about money.

“So, really, I’m more Libertarian,” I said.  

What I didn’t tell him – because time was running short – was that I also support same-gender marriage and women’s reproductive rights. 

Elections are pictures of a moment in time.  People vote for whom they vote for many reasons.

Part of it might be because they read up on the issues, deciding one candidate fits their views better than another.  Some of it, as Wall Street Journal op-ed columnist Joseph Epstein[i] suggests, might be due to circumstances few consider – family, parents, siblings, how they were brought up, where they live, what they do, the education they received.

So we might consider – outrageous as it might seem – that we’re all brainwashed or, if you prefer in this digital age, hardwired, for certain beliefs long before we leave the confines of where we grew up.

Matt Miller, a columnist I once syndicated, and a candidate himself recently for U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman’s seat, taught me one of the best lessons about why one politician is elected over another:  It’s all in the looks.

Turn down the television’s volume when they’re debating or when their ads appear, he said, and it’ll allow you to better study their facial features and expressions, telling you whether they’re happy or angry.

As I recall, he said, the happy ones tend to hold an advantage.  Not always, of course.  But often.

So perhaps it was Martha Coakley’s face that led to her second significant defeat in a statewide contest.  It’s narrow and constricted, not warm enough to win. 

And while you might think that’s sexist, Coakley’s facial disadvantage was the same one that hindered Charlie Baker four years ago when he tried to unseat Gov. Deval Patrick. 

I hope the politicians assembling in Washington and the country’s state capitals in January follow the lesson my mother taught me:  Hold any political view you want, but, remember, life’s solutions are found in the middle.

As for Matt Miller, unfortunately, he didn’t secure his party’s nomination for Waxman’s seat.

I came to know Matt during my time at Tribune Media Services and always found him to be one of the smartest commentators we syndicated.  He’s a centrist Democrat, a former Clinton White House staffer and would have been a solid operator not only for his party but also when it came to working with Republicans. 

His defeat sheds light on the kind of politics those elected must hold.  It illuminates us.

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[i] http://online.wsj.com/articles/joseph-epstein-after-the-midterms-virtucrats-still-rule-1415145309

Desperately to the demagogues

History shows that when people think times are desperate – like they did in Germany in the early 1930s, or in Russia during World War I, and Americans right now, which is why U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va) lost his party’s nomination to a Tea Party candidate last night – any demagogue will do. 

So it’s no wonder that people in Massachusetts, upset as Margery Eagan says they are (Boston Herald, June 10), think the fanciful, emotional-laden proposals of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) will save them.[i]

The Massachusetts Miracle is long gone and, according to two different studies, one from a UCLA professor and another from United Van Lines, which studies where people are going since they’re in the business of moving them, the Bay State ranks 8^th among states that people are leaving.[ii][iii]

This means the remaining Bay Staters, especially the middle class ones, might face an increase in their state taxes because there are fewer citizens to pay the state’s bills.  As always, the rich can afford the advisors who tell them where to hide their money. 

Massachusetts’s biggest industries – the ones that drive the economy – says one state government website, include advertising, architecture, financial services, information technology, life sciences, fishing and renewable energy.[iv]

None of them are about to put the middle class, like Joe and Josephine Six Pack, back to work because, with the exception of fishing, they all require considerable amounts of education.

To put Joe and Josephine back to work – or give them opportunities to earn more money – the state needs more employers.

But the only thing in the hopper to improve the state’s economic woes is a proposed casino for either Everett or Revere and that’s not looking so good.

What Gov. Deval Patrick and his cohorts need to do – and where Senator Warren could stand out – is to start attracting more businesses, like manufacturers, which have traditionally employed the middle class.

More regulations might make some of Senator Warren’s constituents feel good – we showed them, damnit! – but let’s call it what it is:  A full employment program for college-educated regulators in government and college-trained lawyers in private industry to make sure their clients are following the rules.

It doesn’t do a thing for the Six Pack family.

I spent nine months in Texas in the mid-80s.  Every time I turned around, the governor or a mayor was on an economic development mission to sell the state or their city as a place to do business.

In other words, they wanted a company’s jobs in Texas because they knew something that appears to escape Bay State politicians:  More jobs will beget more jobs.

That mission continues to this day, with The Washington Post reporting recently that Texas has done an outstanding job of producing jobs that are equitable across the pay scale.[v]  In addition, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that Texas’ unemployment rate of 5.2 percent[vi] is lower than that of Massachusetts’s 6 percent.[vii]

Tragically, for the Bay State, there’s something in the DNA of its public servants. They don’t give off any signals they’re interested in new businesses moving here, unless it’s a quick hit, like the possibility of hosting the Winter Olympics in 10 years in Boston, or has the potential to addict, like casino gambling. 

So it’s no wonder, as Margery Eagan says, people in Massachusetts are upset.  Their junior senator is so angry and distracted with Wall Street and big banks that she hasn’t the time to do the one thing that will help the Six Pack family – making the Bay State business friendly so jobs that may very well employ Joe and his wife are created here.

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[i] http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/margery_eagan/2014/06/eagan_elizabeth_warren_hammers_her_message_home

[ii] http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/02/10/the-states-people-are-fleeing-in-2014/

[iii] http://www.unitedvanlines.com/mover/united-newsroom/press-releases/2014/2013-united-van-lines-migration-study.htm

[iv] http://www.mass.gov/hed/economic/industries/

[v] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/03/07/texas-isnt-just-leading-the-nation-in-job-growth-its-doing-it-more-equitably-too/

[vi] http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.tx.htm

[vii] http://lmi2.detma.org/lmi/news_release_state.asp

From an expert witness on education

I'm sharing an op-ed article written by Sandra Stotsky, who was a member of the Massachusetts Board of Education and heard the sales pitch on behalf of Common Core.  Her article appeared in the Friday, Jan. 3, 2014, edition of The Wall Street Journal.  This link will take you to it:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304020704579278060483138096?KEYWORDS=sandra+stotsky

I interviewed her, at length, for an article I wrote about Common Core for a monthly parenting magazine in Massachusetts, Bay State Parent.  Sandra brings sharp insight -- and much criticism -- to this latest reform effort in public education.  Her views are not to be dismissed.

Oh, the fuss: The Manners, where are they now?

Etiquette – sometimes referred to as “manners,” that type of behavior

parents once taught their kids so they wouldn’t act on their impulses – 

gives every appearance of being pushed aside, replaced by

insensitive and crass behavior in everything from cutting in line to

drivers flipping one another the bird.

And it isn’t limited to Massachusetts. 

I’ve seen it in many places – from the male chauvinist in Eugene,

Ore., with whom I had business dealings during my Tribune days,

to a racist working at a Boston Market in Lombard, Ill., and a gay

man in Washington, who refused to promote a colleague of mine

because she was African American.

What do they call that, WWB?  Working While Black.

I don’t know.

But it shows that jerks are everywhere.

It was telling moment, three years ago, when a lady working behind

the counter at a nearby Starbucks thanked me for saying please and

thank you as she attended to my order. 

“Thank you for being so considerate,” she said.

““You all do a great job here,” I said, caught off guard by her

comment.

“Not everyone thinks so,” she replied.

Two summers ago, my wife was flipped off as she drove out of the

parking lot of a local train line carrying commuters in and out of 

Boston.  I guess the other driver thought he was more

important. 

Never once did that happen in the 16 years we lived in a Chicago suburb.

But, of course, it’s possible it happens in other suburbs of the country’s

third largest city.

My wife and I spend a lot of time teaching our kids manners.  Everything

from how they dress and speak, including how they handle themselves

at the dinner table, has been reviewed hundreds, thousands, maybe

millions, of times.

Obviously, we haven’t perfected this – we only need to see how our sons,

10 and 9, behave at home to know how badly we’re doing – but we

work on their behavior nonetheless.

I’m always grateful when another adult reports that they’re well behaved,

but I also wonder whose kids they’re really talking about. 

If only we could get them to behave at home – without the constant

reminders!

Right now, we’re following the advice more experienced parents provided:

Eventually they’ll grow up; in the meantime, keep repeating the lessons. 

During recent trips to a nearby mall, where I was buying the boys new

clothes, I kept up the lessons, telling them – well, to be completely

truthful, it entailed gripping their shoulders so they’d stand still – to

allow the women to board and depart the elevator before they did. 

The reaction, on both occasions, was fascinating.

One woman noticed what I was doing and smiled while the other

appeared incredulous, giving the impression that I was wasting

time.  She shook her head and chuckled.  Fortunately neither boy

picked up on the reaction of the second woman.

And while this is hardly a scientific survey, these reactions might

provide a clue as to where we stand on manners today.  Half of

the country is grateful for them while the other half is so jaded

it’s not expecting them – hardly a good thing, I’d say.

Still, we should aim for civilized behavior.  It doesn’t take much

to remind ourselves we’re not the only ones on the planet.  Just

look up from your wireless, handheld device and you’ll see them.

About a year ago, when the boys were earning their Cub Scout

Citizenship Pin, they met the local police chief.  During the

meeting, I had one of the boys ask a question – What could

they do to be good citizens?

He gave a wonderful, simple answer that the kids still remember:

Open doors for others and always say please and thank you.  Be

considerate.  Be nice. 

Words to live by.