Editorials and Opinions

Gary Tischler • October 7, 2011

Like witnesses at a traffic accident, everybody remembers that singular, defining day differently yet, at the same time, everyone has similar recollections of that morning in their memories and dreams.
Hard to imagine the thoughts, feelings and memories of those at ground zero and beyond in New York or the people on those doomed planes, flying into buildings, crashing into the green earth, ripping into the Pentagon. We have stories about the events, the people who survived them, those in proximity or close by in shock.

An amazing number of people recall the quality of the morning just before the first plane struck—an incredibly blue sky, here in Washington and there in New York.
All the memories will come back throughout this week and on Sunday when the memorial in New York is dedicated—there will be concerts, the sound of taps, exhibitions, commemorations, marches, and the names of the victims inscribed, recited, going out into the air of whatever weathered day there will be.

I remember a woman who was huddled around a television monitor at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington as one of the towers collapsed in a cloud of improbable dust. There was a collective gasp from the group around the monitor, people were holding their hands to their mouths, or rubbing their heads tilted backward. The woman, who was here for a medical convention was thin and stood ramrod still and said, to no one in particular, “I woke upon in one world this morning, and I’m going to home to a completely different, changed world tonight.”

It was one of the more prophetic, accurate statements—no doubt, thought, felt and said by others all over the world in some form or another—of the day. And here we are, ten years later, and the wounds still bleed, the shocks still come, the understanding not very much enlarged, our casualty list tripled, the danger still there, the war, undeclared but also unending. We—and the rest of the world—remain in harm’s way, vulnerable to the plots, schemes, and attacks of terrorism, terrorists, terror itself, states which support terrorism and terrorist organizations not yet named. They are not Allah’s children, nor the heart and soul of Islam, but rather they come from the most hateful, desperate and fanatic corners and perversions of faith.

We live in a different, still-drastically-changing world. In the aftermath of 9/11, we launched an attack, with the full sympathy of the world, on al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, declared a victory in a war that was just beginning, then proceeded, with much, much less clarity and certainty to invade Iraq. The outcome was muddy: Saddam Hussein was captured and eventually executed; al Qaeda led a bloody insurgency against American soldiers which was eventually quelled at considerable cost, including the public standing of President Bush. Thousands died including, at last count, 4,442 American troops. We are still fighting in Afghanistan, against both al Qaeda and a resurgent Taliban, and at latest count, 1,584 Americans have been killed there.

After years of non-stop efforts, our forces, specifically an elite Navy Seal team, tracked down and killed Osama Bin Laden, the reviled, elusive mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks this year, sparking a soundtrack of celebration, but not much change.

What we have seen are attempted bombings, the massacre in Fort Hood and terrorist acts in London and Spain, India and Indonesia. We’ve seen continued bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan where the roads are lined with IEDs. We have seen entirely too many of our brave warriors coming home, wearing the very latest prosthetics. They are a part of our landscape, our memorial services, and the services for the honored dead.

We have a whole new government department—Homeland Security—we have a new airport security system which takes every ounce of pleasure out of flying and has been accompanied by controversy, argument and politics.

I think we woke up on 9/l2 with the realization that the world was not a safe place, that we as a people were hated by another group of people who characterized us in ways we did not recognize and could not understand to the point that they envisioned the plan they executed. We mourned, we dealt with anthrax, and I remember a young girl across the street from our house sitting by herself with a lit candle one evening.

If you go to the website for the New York memorial, you can call up the dead, the voices of their loved ones, the details of their lives, the faces in their photographs. We individualize our tragedies in this country, even one as large, as devastating as 9/11, savor every face and time lost on earth, as a kind of act of love. It is something the perpetrators of the acts of atrocity that day—the men with the knives and box cutters and screaming commands on the planes—could not do, they rid themselves completely of imagination and empathy and did what they did gripped by a sick, sad vision that they would be rewarded in paradise.

Sunday, their victims will rise up again as ghosts of their lives, the dead of 9/11, still alive, and bringing with them the memories of a lost world.

David Post • August 25, 2011

Are we in a double dip recession?

Economists hedge their bets using percentage. Most suggest a 30 percent chance we’ll go back into a recession though some go out on a limb and peg the odds at up to 50 percent.
The better question is whether we are out of the one we entered three years ago. Unemployment rose from 5 percent to 9 percent and has not come down since.
I’m not an economist, so what do I know? But the answer is Yes. 100 percent. We are in a recession. My money says the Labor Department will confirm this after it accumulates and analyzes the data in 45 days.

A recession occurs when a country produces less than it did for two prior quarters. Production declines when people stop buying, and the U.S. economy relies upon the consumers buying 70 percent of production. Another 30 percent comes from federal, state and local governments.
Congress is locked in a death spiral to cut federal spending. Federal discretionary spending – dollars not on auto-pilot – will be the lower as a percentage of the economy in over 50 years.
Entitlement spending – those dollars on auto-pilot like Social Security and health care – is rising. Most of entitlement spending is merely a transfer of money from one taxpayer to another. For example, social security takes money from current workers and transfers it to retirees. That’s government spending, but not production.

Increased Medicare, Medicaid, and military health costs are rising because of we are getting older, poorer, and wars have hidden costs.

The federal government’s stimulus two years ago – a continuing source of political warfare – was very small and mostly offset by spending cuts by state and local governments. Teachers, policemen, firemen, and government employees were fired. School budgets and local governments have reduced services. Highways and bridges and other infrastructure needs are not being built or fixed. In the end, the net additional government spending was close to zero.

A fired teacher who starts a new lawn care or babysitting business earns less and buys less.
Consumers buy less for many reasons. Wages haven’t grown in 30 years. Increased gas prices and food costs mean more money goes to the same quantity of goods, so fewer dollars are available to buy other consumer goods needed to pump up the economy.

Home values have declined 30 percent and demand has declined even more. Sellers are receiving less for their property and have less to spend after they sell. New construction is almost non-existent, so construction workers have had not work for years.

Foreclosures are four times higher than just a few years. Banks are nervous that flooding the market with almost 2 million foreclosed houses will push values down further. If that happens, more banks risk becoming insolvent and being taken over by the government.
History teaches that recovering from a recession doesn’t happen when real estate values decline. Jobs cannot grow without a stable real estate market which pulls construction, manufacturing, banking, furniture, materials like steel and concrete and aluminum, and so many other industries with it. These industries that feed construction are suffering. The real estate industry is in tatters – probably the equivalent of a depression.

Banks are nervous about lending because they are afraid they won’t get paid back. Even with historically low interest rates, lending standards make it more difficult for borrowers to qualify for loans to buy a house or start a business. Consumers are buying fewer new cars.
Fewer consumers are using their credit cards that allow them to buy-now, pay-later. For years, economists have scolded consumers for using their credit cards and told them to save more. Nervous consumers are paying down their credit cards and using them less. Fearful about an uncertain future, consumers are saving more.

Stock markets have lost 15 percent of their value – trillions of dollars – in a few weeks. Retirement accounts are lower. Consumers are scared. The U.S. public and world markets have lost confidence in the U.S.’s ability to govern itself. Other countries worldwide have their own economic problems, so they are buying less.

If we’re not in a recession, that is merely a technicality. We went into a recession when unemployment rose from 5 percent to 9.8 percent. Because 90.2 percent of the workforce doesn’t produce and buy what 95 percent of the workforce would, the new goal line for determining growth became the 90.2 percent. So if unemployment drops to 9 percent and the economy rises to 92 percent of full production, that’s about 1 percent growth, though lower than the 95 percent production before the recession began. Only an economist could call that growth.

Are we in a recession? Absolutely. Have we come out of the past recession? No. We all know this. Only the economists don’t.

Gary Tischler •

Last week, I saw a headline in one of the few remaining daily newspapers left in the whole wide world which indicated that the reptile house in Washington would be renovated.

Naturally, I headed to Capitol Hill to see what was going on in Congress. Turns out nobody was home. The guys are out of town, on vacation or running for president. Or just running.

But you know it’s been a weird summer. Heck, it’s been a weird year. Just plain everybody is still embarrassed and ticked about the way our resident politicians from the president to congress to tea party-ers to the media dealt with the debt crisis, which went from a routine yearly thing to political Defcon 3 in about the time it takes John Boehner not to return a call.

Was that a mess or what, and now you know why Eric Cantor was smiling. He for one is not running for president, but the dean of the GOP Young Guns is aiming straight at the speaker’s job. Squeaky wheel, indeed.

The Chinese are mad at us, so mad they picked a fight with the Georgetown University basketball team in China on a good will game tour.

The S&P is mad at the country because of the way Washington—that would be the fools on the hill and at the White House—handled the whole debt mess, so much so that it lowered our borrowing rating to AA, a low-light battery if there ever was one.

The media seems to be mad at Obama along with any number of people who are unhappy about him vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard with rich people. Did you expect him to vacation, I don’t know, Detroit, maybe or on the Texas-Mexico border with the drug lords?

Already, the media is in a kind of frothing frenzy about the GOP primary race, especially now that Texas Governor Rick Perry is in the race. Michelle Bachman won the straw poll in Iowa, whatever that gets you, Tim Pawlenty dropped out, Ron Paul finished second and Newt Gingrich, living up to his first name, finished behind but stayed in for reasons that defy logic, common sense, and Murphy’s Law.
Perry, the dark-eye-brow man who looks like and drawls like a Texas gunslinger, all ominous and mouthy, made his announcement in South Carolina, where all common sense takes flight to destinations unknown. Or as someone said, in South Carolina, Yahoo is a state of mind not a search engine. South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union, and Perry is the only current GOP runner who thought that might be a good idea.

So far Perry has called the Chairman of the Federal Reserve a traitor, and reiterated that global warming is a science community plot to get grants, or something like that. He’s easy to mock if you’re one of those soft liberal commentators, or Bill Maher, but he’s also serious. I’m guessing he’s a pretty good poker player. Bill Clinton called him a handsome rascal, an odd choice of words which indicate he reminded him of another handsome rascally Southern governor of yore.

Almost everything that could happen this year, happened: Japan, the Middle Eastern spring turned into violent summer, the death of Bin Laden, the heightening casualties in Afghanistan, the debt ceiling fiasco, the shootings in Arizona, strikes by high paid athletes, horrible draughts, fires, tornadoes and heat waves, a stock market operating like a whiz bang, atrocity in Norway, the Kardashian wedding.
It’s nice to still be able to feel safe in our own neighborhoods. I mean, it’s not like we could get hit by an earthquake or something.

Oh wait. That happened. Just now, or less.

Cans flew off the shelves in the Adams Morgan Safeway, where a counter girl was in tears. Cars shook on the street; a chimney fell off an apartment building as a 5.8 or 5.9 quake hit the East coast, specifically Virginia. The Pentagon was evacuated. I was walking on 18th street and felt nothing. But the folks at the post office were a little off, feeling dizzy and everyone felt and sometimes saw buildings shake.

Well, there goes that.

A hurricane is coming, and it’s Hurricane Perry.

Ari Post •

-The Key Bridge — Friday, October 19. Walking across the bridge, from the Rosslyn metro into town, five police officers were sitting on the Washington side, immediately pulling over drivers on their cell phones and issuing tickets. All the commotion was exacerbating a traffic jam on the already crowded bottleneck onto M Street, on a typically busy Friday morning. The rows of stopped vehicles and squad cars could have led you to believe there was a drug bust in place. Three blocks into town, I had already passed three other officers ticketing vehicles that had over-extended their parking privileges
by the slightest infraction.

Traditionally, this is what you would call “bad business”. Washington, specifically Georgetown, needs revenue from outside the city to prosper — a situation made all the more serious by the city’s deficit and declining revenue. To welcome visitors and commuters with a hundred dollar fine for a menial violation is not a reasonable manner in which to treat your fellow neighbors. What does this attitude convey to a visitor, coming into town to shop or meet a colleague for lunch, about the city they’re in? This is a clear and consistently raised issue among citizens living outside and around the city. No one wants to come in because of the too-strict, small-scale traffic enforcement. There has been many a quip, even by unlikely Democratic Mayoral candidate Leo Alexander, that an evening in Georgetown is expensive enough without a parking ticket under the wiper-blade or that you can’t come into town without a sack of quarters in your pocket for the money-hungry parking meter.

There has been a crime wave through the neighborhood — assaults, robberies, homes broken into, and even an organized armed bank robbery. But still our local police force piles the citations on reasonable citizens for petty misdemeanors. Priorities need to be straightened.

Talking on a cell phone while driving can indeed be hazardous, especially in congested, urban areas. Parking enforcement is ultimately a burden we all must carry, and the circulation of parking spaces through a time system is a reasonable and pragmatic design. There are indeed reasons for these laws, which can be agreed upon. But where is the line drawn between reasonable traffic enforcement and a police officer needing to fill a quota? At some points, it begins to seem that keeping the peace becomes overshadowed by a disgruntled, hungry system shaking spare change from the pockets of its people. For now, as Bob Dylan (sort of) said, we’ll just sit here on the Key Bridge and watch the tickets flow.

Ari Post •

-After ongoing delays and skyrocketing leaps over the original budget by over $2.2 million, Waterfront Park is still about where it has been for the past six months: over budget and delayed. Delays were largely a result of previously undetected foundation debris associated with the former Capital Traction Company Powerhouse that was located at the spot of the park. The building was demolished in 1968.

Additional costs were then incurred to redesign the underground pumps for the fountain, the centerpiece of the plaza. Though Councilmember Jack Evans, with support from Mayor Fenty, was able to obtain $950,000, which was matched by money from the National Park Service’s Centennial Initiative Fund, phase two of the construction was still asking for an additional $150,000 from private
sources — again to be matched by the Park Service, bringing the total to $300,000 — to complete the park.

On October 7, the Georgetown BID presented Bob vom Eigen from the Friends of the Waterfront Park with a $50,000 check to assist in the completion of phase two of construction. The donation again will be matched by the National Park Service and will apparently, along with Pepco’s recent $50,000 donation, finalize the necessary fundraising for completion of phase two of the Park by June 2011.

But the Friends of Georgetown Waterfront Park continue to turn to the local community to come up with the rest of the funds, with the promise that every dollar donated will be matched by the National
Park Service.

According to Councilman Jack Evans, our local government is facing a shortfall of $100 million in declining revenue and $75 million in various spending pressures. Is this troubled park currently worth the efforts and resources of an ailing economy? We present no argument against the importance of public spaces, and the positive effects of community parks and recreation areas, but the plans for this park far exceed necessary expenditures for community development.

Plans for phase two of the Park, which stretches from Wisconsin Avenue to 31st Street, include a low arcing fountain lined with benches and steps laddering down to the river. A wide walkway will be continued along the river with an area with benches and a pergola for river viewing. An interactive
fountain will be added, and an arbor will be constructed above the new benches. Below the arbor, river stairs will descend to the water, forming an amphitheater where people can view activities in the park and watch the finish line of the boat races. For more information about Georgetown Waterfront Park construction, visit www.georgetownwaterfrontpark.org. Keep your fingers crossed.

Veena Trehan •

-Grr. Swat. Intimidating pose.

A new political animal may be coming to a town and statehouse near you: mama grizzlies. They combine a protective maternal instinct with the power of a large angry animal.

This could be excellent news for kids who have suffered greatly in the recession. Their college funds have been decimated, their homes foreclosed and taken away, their families impoverished from extended periods of under- or unemployment. The innocence of these citizens does not earn them the power to vote, so champions for their wellbeing (beyond their mothers) are more than welcome.

Throughout history Moms have symbolized compassion and self-sacrifice, from renaissance images of the Madonna to the life and works of Mother Teresa. Through their collective efforts to help the world’s children, mothers represent a bridge from a present replete with potential (and problems) to a bright future.

So, Moms log millions of unpaid hours volunteering in schools. Despite incredible hardship, impoverished mothers choose daily to prioritize the health and education of their children and receive a helping hand from microfinance organizations and charities. Neighborhood moms organize drives for disaster victims. Personally and collectively, mothers are a driving force in transforming their communities and the world at large.

This emergence of a potentially powerful and committed ursine species should bode well for kids struggling from the effects of this recession. Republican and Tea Party Senate candidates Carly Fiorina (California), Sharron Angle (Nevada), and Christine O’Donnell (Delaware), as well as South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley – and all of the others anointed “Mama Grizzlies” by Sarah Palin and her followers – claim they will fight for children in their states.

But these “mama grizzlies” seem more like their cousins the black bears, a species known to sometimes abandon their cubs.

“Mama grizzlies” aren’t making children’s health a priority. Many advocate repealing a deficit-neutral
health care reform package that specifically targets benefits for the nation’s youth. The new law prevents insurance companies from excluding preexisting conditions for children and adults alike, extends the period youths can stay on parents’ insurance, and funds state programs for poor children. Advocates of repeal fail to say how they will replace the many provisions that promise to keep kids healthy.

“Mama grizzlies” also support businesses that have been responsible for recent recalls of poisoned
peanuts, spinach, and eggs, as well gross negligence in allowing toxic chemicals into toys. And beyond even these deplorable business practices, our children’s future employment is imperiled by the exodus of manufacturing jobs overseas (one-third alone left during the Bush presidency). But generally these mamas are avidly pro-business. Haley has described placing private sector executives into state regulatory agencies as “a beautiful thing” and suggests wiping out the corporate income tax. These candidates have fallen short in describing how the candidates would build the next generation of jobs and ensure kids eat and play with only what’s safe.

These mamas do not seem particularly concerned about childhood’ education. America has dropped from first to twelfth in college attainment and ranks in achievement close to the bottom of Western nations in math, science and reading. Senate hopeful Sharron Angle once called for abolishing the Department of Education. Others call for performance-based pay and more private schools – piecemeal and ineffective approaches to our children’s education crisis.

These same “mama grizzlies” rarely discuss environmental and public health considerations, despite the asthma and obesity epidemics. One telling example is that Angle dismissed the escrow account for BP’s spill, a monumental disaster that has wreaked havoc on children’s mental health, breathing, and bodies, as a “slush fund”.

The approaching election offers a prime opportunity for moms with a grizzly bear’s strength of will to rise up and whack the oversized bullies that have left our children less healthy and poorer. This is an opportunity to do what Mothers should do: set up strict rules and punishing consequences for those who prey on their brood.

But insurance corporations, Big Oil, and too-large-to-fail banks seem to have co-opted the protective instincts of these potentially influential politicians. These “mama grizzlies” rise up. They grab a microphone to speak to the public, but they have little to say on the issues affecting our children. More than anything their message is, in effect, “Hey! Hands off the big guy.”

Voters have the duty to campaign for and elect candidates who put our kids first, who demonstrate
that they will fight to ensure a better future for the children of the country. While the roar of the mother grizzly is deafening, be sure not to mistake its tenor with the lesser snarl of the black bear.

Georgetowner •

Is it just me, or is this summer even hotter than the last? As I mention every year during the dog days of summer, I hope you will take a moment to check in on your elderly or ill neighbors who might need a little assistance. Weather like this can effect even the healthiest of us.

This year, similar to years past, has proven to be entertaining in terms of Washington’s No.1 spectator sport – politics. With a number of primary contests heating up, local news coverage is already keeping track of fundraising achievements and other campaign-related news.

As I write this, I am reading reports of the recent deal between Congress and the President to raise the federal debt ceiling. While this would seem to be a national issue, any change in federal spending patterns always has a dramatic impact on the District since we are not recognized as a state. Much like with the potential federal government shutdown earlier in the year, the threat of a federal government default has placed the District government on high alert and necessitated the preparation of contingency plans in the event of a catastrophe.

Though this latest crisis has been averted, the fall Council session will soon begin and we have many challenges ahead. Certain aspects of our financial health are improving; however, while we were concerned about revisiting the fiscal year 2011 budget last year at this time due to declining revenue projections, I am hopeful now that our Chief Financial Officer will identify further new revenue and give us an opportunity to repeal some more of the Mayor’s proposed tax increases. I believe ultimately we must right-size the District government to match our actual revenues. Failure to do so will cause individuals and businesses to restructure their investments or even leave the District if their tax burdens continually rise.

Make sure to let your at-large Council representatives know where you stand on these issues and have a great summer!