The 2010 Health Care Reform Law
Does it Make Sense for America?

Before passage of the Health Care Reform Law, most Americans would have agreed that our health care system was flawed, citing high premiums, rapidly rising costs, insurance companies denying coverage at their discretion, and millions of American citizens unable to afford quality health care at affordable prices. So why now the cry to repeal this law, which appeared to have remedied many of those flaws?

Both political parties share responsibility for the flapdoodle, with the roots of the problem appearing well before the bill passed. Among them were the lack of objective debate; ambiguous wording of the voluminous 1,017-page bill; wide disagreement between Democrats on how to implement universal health care; Washington making side deals to purchase passage of the law; and the President’s inability to frame objectives for reform in easy-to-understand language.

To add insult to injury, we are bombarded with misinformation about the Law. If Mark Twain were alive today, he might have diagnosed our problem as: “What gets most Americans into trouble in this health care debate is not that they know so little, but that they know so many things that ain’t so.”

Giving credibility to borrowing Twain’s assertion are polls showing an alarmingly disproportionate number of Americans believe these things that ain’t so, including fabrications such as the new health care law covers illegal immigrants; Americans have no choice in the health benefits they receive; death panels will decide who lives; the government will set doctors’ wages; and no chemo treatment for older Medicare patients.

Per PolitiFact, the number one that ain’t so for 2010, because virtually every Republican leader told it repeatedly to the American public, was: the health care reform law is a “government takeover of health care.”

The facts show that the 2010 Health Care Reform Law does not allow the government to operate the health care system. Unlike Canada, England and numerous European countries, public-sector or private-sector insurance companies are responsible for operations. The truth is: the current health care reform law provides (95%) universal coverage through regulated private markets.

So what do we do? Accept the Law as currently written? Tweak it to improve it? Repeal it? And if so, what do we replace it with? If the “individual mandate,” requiring everyone to have health insurance by 2014, is deemed unconstitutional, is it possible to have universal coverage? And who pays for the medical costs of the uninsured? What happens to the one in seven Americans who did not have or could not afford health insurance before the 2010 Law? Is it still possible to have universal health care by dramatically lowering the age of Medicare?

Whatever answers we eventually embrace as a country, it’s important for well-informed citizens to honestly debate health care reform. But, before axing the Law—if that’s our country’s choice—or trying to answer the aforementioned questions, we need to objectively identify its pros and cons. Branding or demonizing it as “Obamacare” or “the work of liberals” does not make for constructive dialogue.

If a person wants unbiased information, several organizations not beholden to a political party or private interest group can provide help. A few of them are The Kaiser Family Foundation, Families USA, AARP, and Docs for America.

While I would like to see an amenable resolution to the health care issue, my motivation for writing this article incubated during the 2010 elections in southern Arizona. One candidate trying to unseat Gabrielle Giffords besieged the Tucson landscape with billboards reading, “Giffords forced Obamacare on You!” Many voters accepted this that ain’t so with little or no knowledge of the health care law and, they weren’t embarrassed by the lack of civil, constructive debate. After the assassination attempt on Gifford’ life, I vowed to do what I could to convince people that we need to have rules for civil debate if our democracy is going to work.

Postscript: As I prepared this article for a press release, I was pleased to see Bill Frist, a medical doctor and former Senate Majority Leader (R-Tenn.), telling his constituents that instead of mounting an effort to repeal the Health Reform Law, Republicans should use it as a “platform” for improvements. He further stated that the law has elements that Republicans should be able to get behind, particularly its “federalism” approach to providing health care. “(The Law) has many strong elements, and those elements, whatever happens, need to be preserved, need to be cuddled, need to be snuggled, need to be promoted and need to be implemented.”

After 1845, when the United States annexed Texas, Santa Anna continued to claim that Texas was still a province of Mexico. He refused to recognize the secession and ignored the decisive victories by the predominantly American Texicans in 1836. His attitude eventually led to war.

Early on September 12, 1847 the Americans began an artillery barrage against the Castle that continued throughout the day and resumed at dawn the next day.  After the artillery bombardment ceased, General Winfield Scott ordered his troops to charge the Castle.

A storming party led by forty Marines was followed by a brigade of volunteers. For a time the detachment stalled while they waited for ladders to arrive and for reinforcements held up by heavy Mexican artillery. When the ladders finally arrived, the first wave of Americans ascended the walls led by the Marines. George Pickett (later famous for “Pickett’s Charge” at Gettysburg) was the first over the wall. Several American Generals and other officers were wounded as they led their men over the walls before the Marines were finally able to raise the U.S. Flag over the castle.

During the battle a Mexican army cadet wrapped himself in the Mexican flag and jumped from the extremely high wall to prevent the seizure of the Mexican flag by the Americans.  From a very safe distance, General Santa Anna (yes, the same Santa Anna who captured the Alamo in 1836) watched his army troops melt away in defeat.

The Battle for Chapultepec Castle was marked with extreme bravery and sacrifice by soldiers on both sides, many who were just cadets and volunteers. This was just one of several great battles fought during The Mexican–American War, now an almost obscure conflict between the United States and Mexico (1846-48).

At the end of the Mexican-American War, the United States forced the Mexican government, under the terms of the “Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo,” to give up the Mexican territories of Alta California (now the state of California) and Santa Fe de Nuevo México (parts of west Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Nevada). The Rio Grande became the official boundary between Texas and Mexico. Mexico was forced to forever drop all claims to Texas and California and all of the land between them.

Thus the southern boundaries of the United States of America were set and secured, guaranteeing peace between the the two North American nations for generations to come.

Of course, that was not the case then -- nor is it now.

In 1914, the United States occupied the Mexican port of Veracruz for six months due to a misunderstanding between Mexican guard troops and some U.S. soldiers who had been sent to protect American citizens living there. This incident was one of several diplomatic problems between the two countries related to the Mexican Revolution that was going on at the time.

In response to that misunderstanding, known as the “Tampico Affair,” President Woodrow Wilson ordered the U.S. Navy to occupy both the city and port of Veracruz. When Wilson received an alert that a German delivery of weapons to Mexican rebels was due to arrive there, he ordered the port’s customs office be seized and the weapons confiscated.

In 1913, Mexican rebel armies overthrew the Mexican government during a coup d’état. Wilson refused to recognize the rebels as the legitimate government of Mexico and embargoed all arms shipments to them. Unofficially, Wilson supported what little remained of the Constitutional Army of the previous elected government of Mexico.

It turned out that the arms shipment to Mexico actually originated at the Remington Arms Company in the United States. Remington’s guns and ammunition were shipped first to Hamburg, Germany, and then on to Mexico, an attempt by the company to effectively skirt around the American arms embargo.

Three years later on March 9, 1916, General Pancho Villa ordered nearly five hundred Mexican members of his revolutionary group who were armed to the teeth with American guns and ammunition, to go across the border and attack Columbus, New Mexico. Villa felt the raid was justified because of the American government’s recognition of his enemies, the Carranza regime, and also for the loss of many of his soldiers due to defective bullets that he’d purchased from the United States.

On May 15th, Villa attacked Glen Springs, Texas. One civilian was killed and three American soldiers were wounded. On June 15th, “bandits” (thought to really be Villa soldiers) killed four soldiers at San Ygnacio, Texas. On July 31st, one American soldier and a customs inspector were killed at a Rio Grande border crossing. In each of these incidents all weapons and ammunition used by the Mexican soldiers and bandits were manufactured by esteemed American companies like Winchester, Remington, and Smith & Wesson.

Now, nearly one hundred years later, we are facing another border war with Mexico, presumably not against the legitimate military, but against the warlords of the Mexican drug cartels.

Unlike the brave, dedicated Mexican soldiers and cadets who fought during the Battle of Chapultepec, the armies of these criminal cartels are made up of desperate men. Their only objective is to make huge amounts of money by controlling the flow of illegal drugs and weapons across the North American continent.

President Barack Obama recently met with President Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa of Mexico to try and find a unified way for our countries to defeat the drug cartels. Calderon promised to work with Obama to find a way to stop the flow of illegal drugs and weapons across the border, committing national army and guard troops, local and national police forces, and millions of pesos toward the effort.

Both Obama and Calderon have admitted that the United States bears a heavy responsibility for the successes of the drug trade. Most of the buyers of illegal drugs are Americans. Just as it was when our soldiers and Marines fought the Mexican rebel army at Vera Cruz and against Pancho Villa -- all who were equipped with American made rifles, pistols and ammunition -- the weapons and sophisticated military devices being used by drug cartel soldiers and enforcers are made in U.S. factories, sold by U.S. arms dealers, and then smuggled into Mexico.

American made guns support the drug cartels in Mexico…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNNRwIKgweM

We find ourselves fighting the Mexican-American War all over again on several fronts. Our borders are like sieves, allowing illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America access to all of our country, but especially the southwestern states. Mexican Mafia gangs made up of both citizens and illegal aliens of Mexican descent control entire neighborhoods in some of our largest cities. They easily travel between the two countries carrying drugs and weapons.

The Mexican Mafia controls large groups of prison inmates on both sides of the border -- and in some cases even the prisons themselves. Teenagers are recruited or drafted into area gangs to act as soldiers, enforcers and drug dealers in neighborhoods of our largest cities. The sad truth is that these gangs have also spread their poison out into the smaller towns and rural areas that were previously untouched by crime and the drug trade.

While the primary focus of our political leaders is on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, these small armies that owe their existence to the Mexican drug cartels are spreading throughout our country. We tend to worry about a few dozen Muslim terrorists sneaking weapons into our country, while thousands of well armed Mexican gang members and drug cartel enforcers are already living in the hearts of our cities, ready to rise up against the civilian authorities at a moment’s notice if and when they are given the order by cartel leaders.

Like Al-Qaeda and Muslim extremist terrorists, these cartel members are vicious, uncaring, and very dangerous. They are willing to kill police officers, government officials, news reporters, and even innocent civilians. They are perfectly willing to kill each other as well, both rival gang members and weak or disloyal members of their own gangs. They do their nasty deeds just like the Islamic terrorists: beheading, extreme and prolonged torture, dismemberment, live burial, hanging, rape and strangulation. While what they do is primarily meant to send a message to their enemies and competitors - and to some extent to create fear among the general public -- they are also happy to commit these atrocities just for the fun of watching other human beings suffer indignities and unbearable pain.

We must face the fact that we are once again at war on our southern border. Fortunately, in this case the Mexican Army and the civil authorities are our allies. That could quickly change should the Mexican military and police forces lose their will to fight or should the leadership of the central government be taken over by politicians with ties to the cartels.

Yes, the battles we face in the Middle East and Asia are critical and must be managed, but President Obama must realize that we have enemy armies on both sides of our southern border. These cartel soldiers (who are nominally Christian and Catholic) are potentially far more dangerous and evil than the armies of Taliban fundamentalists and Islamic extremists located on the other side of the planet.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and local police recently rounded up over one hundred street gang members in a series of raids in North Texas cities. Most of the arrests were for serious criminal charges. A few were arrested on administrative, or immigration violations.

An ICE spokesman said the those arrested represented members of twenty-seven gangs, including the Asian Boyz, Latin Kings, Eastside Locos, Northside Locos, Westside 12, 18th Street, 28th Street, Love Field Players, Mexican Mafia and MS-13. Most of the gangs were affiliated with each other in some way, with MS-13 being the largest and most powerful, taking its orders directly from drug cartel leaders in Mexico.

When we were stationed in Kampala, Uganda, I had two neighbors. On my right was an East Indian couple. The wife could only speak her native tongue so we never could never really talk to each other. I had not yet learned how to play bridge or tennis so was at home a lot. We would wave to each other and we would go to each others’ homes and usually ended up in the kitchen teaching and cooking for each other. She had a big kitchen but completely without furniture, so we sat on the floor on straw mats. On one side of the kitchen there was a huge stack of shelves divided by many little cabinets where she kept her Indian spices to make curry. She also had a heavy stone mortar and pestle. I realized then that curry powder was a little different in each Indian home, depending on the cook’s choice of ingredients. She would mix a little of this and a little of that and throw it in the mortar and then with her pestle she would pound it into powder for the delicious curry she was preparing that day. Certainly not the same as buying curry paste or powder in a bottle! She taught me how to make Naan, Puri, and Indian deserts. We had a wonderful time gesturing and laughing. Some days she would come to my house and I would show her how to use my Chinese cleaver to slice and dice the ingredients that go into Chinese cooking. I even showed her how to make Chinese spring roll skins. We would leave my kitchen in one big mess which did not make John, my houseboy, very happy. This lasted for over two years; I have not forgotten her and I am sure she thinks of me when cooking Chinese meals.

On our left was an American couple who also worked for the embassy. One summer their son, Danny, who was 17 years old, came to visit. We became good friends immediately. When the men went to the Embassy, Danny would come over and visit me. He had rented a beautiful Harley-Davidson for his means of transportation. One day he took me for a ride. At 75 mph, I felt that my head would fall off or I would lose all my hair. It was scary but lots of fun. I had a brand new gold convertible Corvair, and when I went shopping I would put the top down, and Danny would ride his cycle behind me acting as my security guard. Everyone would stop to stare at us, which we found very amusing. When Kasalina, the nanny for my two small children, Jeffrey and Leslie, had to take the day off, Danny would come over and be their baby sitter. He was always so patient with them, playing hide and seek, riding Leslie’s tricycle, making funny faces and joking until the kids would be giggling with delight. Of course Danny left when the summer was over to go back to the USA to begin college.

When we were in Chile, we decided to take a vacation in Barilochi, a famous and very beautiful resort area in Argentina. With both children in tow, we drove from Puerto Montt, Chile to San Carlos de Barolochi in our Pontiac Firebird. It was the custom of truck drivers to take a break by parking the truck under any one of the large shade trees that lined the dirt road between the Argentine and Chilean customs posts, a distance of about ten miles of open countryside. The driver would chock the truck wheels with a couple of rocks, then just drive off. Unfortunately for us, it was very difficult to see the rocks in the shade of the tree and we had the misfortune to drive our low-slung car over a couple of them. A horrible screeching sound coming from the underside of the car brought us to an immediate halt. It was around five in the afternoon and the shadows were growing long. We knew that we had damaged something, as we could see a little oil leaking onto the dirt. As twilight fell there was no sound other than from a few birds and there was not a car in sight. We were getting very nervous and really did not know what to do next. I thought I heard the sound of a vehicle approaching, so I hopped out of the car and prayed that somebody would come by and help us out, since the next town was quite far away. It seemed like an eternity before I saw a Volkswagen bus coming towards us. I stuck my thumb out and struck the hitchhiker pose. The Volkswagen pulled to a stop and out jumped four young German men. One of them could speak some English. They talked among themselves for a few minutes and then seemed quite happy with their decision. In the bus they had a small kitchen and under the stove they had a rectangular linoleum rug. They pulled it out of the bus, together with some cord. One of them then managed to crawl under the car and made a temporary blanket to cover the leak and pulled the damaged sheet metal away from the flywheel. We started our car and drove slowly into Chile and on to Puerto Montt, where we could have proper repairs done and find a place to eat and sleep. The young men followed us all the way into town, but declined our offer of a meal. They wanted to drive on to a destination nearer Santiago. We thanked these kind young men and gave them our address in Santiago, but unfortunately we never saw them again. I have many German friends now, a very special one is a director at my duplicate bridge club, and when I see him every week, I am always always reminded of our saviors of long ago.

When we were in Guatemala, Dick was kidnapped by Marxist guerillas. He was at a senior staff meeting at INCAP campus, part of the World Health installation, when four young men came bursting into the room with sub-machine guns. One pointed it to his forehead, and another man tied his arms behind him with shoelaces around his thumbs and they took him away. I did not know if he was dead or alive until I got a photo of him looking like a prisoner of war. My children were back in the United States so I was alone to deal with this dreadful situation. It was then that I realized how kind people were. My Guatemalan friends took me to their fincas on weekends, others would bring me food, trays laden with everything from soup to nuts. A wealthy American lady married to a Guatemalan, offered me her tennis court from eight to ten every morning and the American Ambassador promised that the Embassy would be watching over me. One of the ladies who worked with Dick offered to come and live with me. Marilu had cancer, but she forgot her problems, left her family and moved right in. My German landlord had me over many times for dinner and served me sausages, black bread and other specialties from his country. After Dick was released, we had to leave Guatemala the next day with forged passports. A month later we went back to pack up our belongings and were overwhelmed at the welcome we received.

Ten years later, after we were already settled in Tucson, Arizona, we got a long distance call from our Guatemalan friend, Dorothy, and her German husband Hanno, inviting us to return to Guatemala to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Dick’s release. They were going to Germany to visit Hanno”s family, and we stayed in their fabulous house for three weeks. The next house was where the Vice President of Guatemala lived. They left us a Mercedes to drive, memberships to the German and American Clubs to play tennis and bridge, and a maid, cook and gardener to cater to our every need.

I could circle the world and write about all the wonderful people we met and loved, but it would take forever. One thing I know for sure, people are people and love and understanding is in all of us. I will write about the latest incident that happened right here in Tucson, Arizona, with a most adorable lady.

One of my favorite pastimes is reading cook books. About six months ago, I found a recipe in a one book that called for pie crust mix and I was determined to try it out. I went to my favorite Fry’s on 1st Avenue, and was told to go to the aisle where they sold the Bisquick Mix. Two store workers were helping me. We looked and looked but no luck. Standing nearby was a very cute older lady and she was determined to help me find it. Her name is Nancy North. She said she had been baking and cooking forever. She took me to all the counters where we might find the mix, but again with no success. I thanked her for being so helpful and went home. I forgot about the incident. Several days later, Nancy called me,saying that she had three boxes of the pie crust mix and that I should meet her the next morning before ten at the same Fry’s. She explained that she was in the middle of looking for a place to rent and was very busy with rental agents. I asked her where she had located the mix and she told me that she had telephoned her daughter, Cheryl, in Bay City, Michigan. She said that Bay City was a small town and that Cheryl knew almost everyone who worked in the town supermarkets. One was able to supply the pie crust mix, and Cheryl had it sent it by overnight mail. I met Nancy the next morning and she handed me the crust mix and would not allow me to pay her. We will be getting together as soon as her family leaves after Halloween. I will tell her about China and she will tell me about life back in the good old days, a half century or more ago. By the way, Nancy has four daughters, ten granddaughters, and ten great granddaughters – and one pit bull dog. I can’t wait to see her again.

What a life! What a world!

[Photo credits: "Connected Hands," Julia Freeman-Woolpert, USA; "Two Hands Reaching," Charlotte Na, USA; "Sharing Her Harvest," Sava Marinkovic, Serbia.]

Culp was best known for co-starring with Bill Cosby in the ground-breaking television series “I Spy” during the 1960s, Culp was 79 years old at the time of his passing on March 24.

“I Spy” was a groundbreaking first for TV, teaming Culp and Cosby as two buddies that traveled the world as spies -- but posing as tournament tennis competitors. The first of many TV and movie interracial pairings, such as “Miami Vice” and many cops and robbers “buddy movies,” “I Spy” began during a period when racial equality was still just a dream and real racial and sexual diversity on TV was still at least fifteen years away. Black faces on TV were still very much a rarity in the mid to late 1960s.

In later years, Culp played presidents, cops, senators, devious businessmen, occasional villains, and more recently, a repeating role as Ray Romano’s father-in-law in the sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond.”

“I Spy” came along when fictional secret agents were very popular on both big and small screens, riding on the success of the James Bond movies starring Sean Connery and TV’s “Secret Agent,” Patrick McGoohan. Culp and Cosby played their roles with humor and occasional horseplay, rather than the brutality and violence that were central to the themes of their competitors.

Robert Culp on his relationship with Bill Cosby…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7up2M_cbKs

After “I Spy” ended, Culp took a starring role with Natalie Wood, Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon in the groundbreaking movie “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.” At the time quite daring and risqué, “B&C&T&A” explored the rather taboo subject (even for the late 1960s) of group sex and wife swapping.

In 1968, I was working for Pacific Telephone Company in Hollywood. After two years of working in the field as a telephone installer/repairman, I accepted a job as a “line assigner” -- a somewhat advanced clerical and technical position. My office was on the second floor of the Hollywood Exchange Central Office at 1429 N. Gower Street. The building sat a half block south of Sunset Boulevard and less than a half mile from the famous intersection of Hollywood and Vine.

Directly across the street from my office, at 1438 N. Gower, was the Columbia Studios movie lot (now known as “Capital Studios at Sunset-Gower”). Even with a studio right next door, we rarely saw movie stars out on the street, most of them preferring to stay behind the 25-foot high walls that surrounded the studio lot. Occasionally I’d see Henry Fonda drive by in his Mustang or catch a glimpse of Elizabeth Montgomery grabbing a quick sandwich at the little coffee shop down near the corner.

In those days I knew what it was like being poor -- really, really poor. I was trying to support my wife and three babies on something less than $3.00 per hour. The only place we could afford to live in was a horrible little house near First Street and Western Avenue, where for $75 per month rent we got a roof over our heads and the company of rats and cockroaches.

Our main transportation at the time was an old 1952 Cadillac that I’d bought for $100. It was nasty -- really nasty. The headliner and door panels were ripped and badly stained. We had to put blankets over the seats just to keep the stuffing in and to prevent the springs from scratching our asses.

I started riding a bicycle to work several days a week to save on gas and to avoid rush hour accidents. We had no car insurance; we simply could not afford to pay Allstate and buy food out of the same paycheck. On days when my wife drove the car to do errands, she would sometimes drive to the office to pick me up at the end of my shift.

One evening at quitting time, she parked across the street and waited for me to come out the door. My two older daughters were sitting in the back seat; she was holding the baby. As luck would have it, I was forced to stay for about thirty minutes of overtime, making her wait for what surely seemed an eternity. By the time I got out the door, after work traffic filled the entire length of Gower Street in both directions.

Location of my encounter with Robert Culp in 1968. Columbia Studios is on the right, telephone central office is red building on left.

I ran out the front door and across the street, working my way between cars that were waiting for the light at Sunset to change. I jumped in on the driver’s side, gave everyone a kiss, and turned the key. Nothing happened and I knew immediately what was wrong. I knew how to fix it, but getting the car started would be a two-person job. My wife couldn’t help because she had her hands full of crying baby, plus two very hungry little girls in the back seat whining because they were hungry and tired.

I got out of the car and lifted the hood. I looked at the voltage regulator and saw that a ground wire had pulled loose from the firewall. I just needed to jiggle the wire a few times to make contact until the car started and then we could drive away. Even if the wire came loose later, everything would be OK after the engine started. As long as I could keep my foot on the gas and the generator spinning, the car would run and get us home.

With my head under the hood, I tried to find a way to wrap the wire around a bolt or screw in the firewall. I was having no luck at all.

“Can I help you?” I lifted up and turned around. A very tall and slender fellow was standing behind me dressed in a crisp white shirt and light tan pants. His face had a soft orange tint, probably residue from movie makeup. I immediately realized that it was Robert Culp standing there. The “I Spy” guy was offering to get his hands dirty on our behalf.

“Well, well, yes you can -- I guess.” I explained the problem and how the fix would work. I offered to let him sit inside the car to turn the key and step on the gas. However, I think that the three crying babies and the old army blankets covering the seats scared him off, leading to his decision to remain on the outside of our car.

“No. Why don’t you show me what you need me to do under the hood? Then you get in and start the car.”

“That would be very nice of you, but I don’t want you to get dirty.”

He smiled back at me and quipped, “It won’t hurt me to get a little dirty. Might even help my image a bit.”

Sure enough, he grabbed the wire, held it up against the firewall, holding it in place even as it sparked away every time I turned the key and cranked the starter. After a half dozen tries, the wire finally made a decent connection and the old Caddie fired up, rumbling back to life.

Culp went around, dropped the hood, checked it to be sure it was latched, and then came around to my wife’s window. “Need anything else?”

My wife offered him a diaper to wipe his hands, but he deferred. I could see visible streaks of grease on his shirt sleeve and right above his belt, from leaning across the fender and into the engine compartment. My wife made a feeble attempt to offer to pay to have his shirt cleaned. “No mam. Thank you anyway. I’ll take care of it. You folks have a nice evening, OK?”

With that, Robert Culp, big time movie and TV star, stepped away and continued his walk, somewhat worse for wear, south on Gower Street.

To everyone else looking on as we drove away in our rust-bucket Cadillac, I’m sure the man we left standing there just looked like any other 38-year old man with a few premature gray streaks in his hair and grease on his shirt. To us, he looked like an angel -- an angel that came to our aid at exactly the right time. It was if heaven sent him to us at the very moment we were most desperate.

When we got home, we talked about what had happened. Checking our pockets, we realized that between the two of us we had less than two dollars, not nearly enough for cab or bus fare to get us home that night. If I hadn’t been able to get the car started, we would have had to walk home, about five miles, carrying two babies. Our 4-year old would have had to walk the entire distance on her own.

“You know who that was, don’t you?” I asked my wife.

“No. I have no idea.”

“You’re kidding. That was Robert Culp!”

“Who’s Robert Culp?” she asked.

“You know -- the ‘I Spy’ guy. He’s married to France Nuyen.”

For some reason, until I finally told her that he was on the TV show with Bill Cosby, she simply didn’t seem to know who he was. We didn’t watch the show. We rarely watched Johnny Carson -- because it was on just too late at night. Culp and Cosby were on the Tonight Show often in those days, but we missed them because we weren’t watching.

Finally, it dawned on my wife what had just happened to us. “We were just helped by a TV star! Good God.” It wasn’t just any run of the mill TV star either, but one of the biggest at the time.

I’m sure it was no big deal for Mr. Culp. He probably never gave it a second thought, just doing what any other Good Samaritan would have done in those same circumstances.

Later, I found out that on the day of our encounter, he had been on the Columbia lot making “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.” After the movie was released in late 1969 it was quite successful -- and in 1970 was nominated for four Academy Awards.

Years later I saw Culp play three excellent villains on “Columbo.” During the 1970s it seemed like he was showing up on TV several times a week, almost to the point of over-exposure.

I’ve told this story several times to friends and family whenever I’d reminisce about my old telephone company days. More often than not I’d get a blank stare when I would mention Culp. “Who was that? What was he in?”

Robert Culp may have faded from the collective memory of 21st Century movie goers and TV watchers. But not from mine. Never. I’ll never forget his random act of kindness to me and my family that late evening. I hope my readers won’t forget it either.

During my career with the telephone company I came in contact with many movie actors and TV personalities. A few were cordial, but many were demanding, argumentative, and unpleasant. Some wouldn’t even acknowledge my presence, letting their maid or other employee deal with me. I have many stories I could share about my encounters with the rich and famous, but very few of those tales of the Hollywood Hills would be complimentary. There is one very significant exception: Robert Culp.

May you rest in peace, Bob. Your small act of kindness that one evening forty-two years ago made a lifetime impression on one of your fans. You will always be an “action hero” to me -- remembered and appreciated.

I voted for you in November, 2008. I don’t apologize for being a big fan of your style, intelligence, and your dedication to being a good President. A lot of people, including some in my own family, think I’ve lost my mind or gone over to the “Dark Side” because I support you most of the time.

You have a particular talent as a public speaker. I won’t offer any advice to you on how you might improve your delivery, pronunciation, enunciation, or other presentational skills. I personally think that you are the best public speaker to live in the White House since President Ronald Reagan. Reagan had some professional training as an actor and TV host. I think your skill comes from the heart.

Let’s face the facts. If you had managed your presidential campaign like you have the Office of the President, you’d still be a junior Senator from Illinois. Hillary Clinton would probably be president this term – or, heaven forbid, John McCain. We’d all have remembered you only as “that good-looking young African-American fellow from Chicago that ran for President, but lost the primaries to John Edwards.”

Where is the fire in your belly? What happened to your insistence on sticking to the facts? Why won’t you immediately counter-punch whenever someone goes on Fox News and tells a bald-faced lie? When Representative Stupak comes out and says that the new Senate version of the healthcare bill “allows federal money to pay for abortions” – make him prove it.

Don’t just make a sissified statement like, “I’m sure that the Congressman is sincere in his beliefs, but we don’t want to hold up healthcare for the majority of Americans.” Make Stupak quote the chapter and verse in the Senate bill that supports his statement. Don’t avoid the issue to keep from hurting his feelings, attack the falsehood! Make him prove the facts of his statements!

It’s already been proven numerous times by several TV, radio, and newspaper commentators, House Leader Nancy Pelosi, and other prominent House and Senate leaders that the new bill specifically does not include any allowance for payments for abortions using federal money. However, a fair majority of American voters DO BELIEVE what Stupak is asserting. Why? It’s because you’ve avoided calling him out on the issue. You’ve lost the battle before it started because you refuse to shoot back or defuse the bomb that Stupak has dropped on healthcare reform.

All this does is make voters like me, who have continued to support you all this time, wonder if your hands are also in the pockets of the big insurance cartel. If not, why won’t you speak up – loud and clear?

Instead of appealing for the support of the vast majority of people who voted for you and supported your plans to reform government, provide universal healthcare, and bring the war in Iraq to a close — you’ve been in Washington negotiating with special interest groups and wasting your time trying to appease the Republicans in Congress. They have made no secret that they despise you and have vowed to oppose you at every turn. Your choosing to ignore them has put the brakes on all the momentum you had when you were elected our President. By trying to be “Mr. Nice Guy” you’re barely treading water at this stage of your first term.

Well-funded opponents of health reform continue to gain ground by convincing the American middle-class that your plan is a false choice: Keep the healthcare plans they have now, or gamble on “Obama’s government takeover of healthcare with his socialist ideals and lose everything.”

You’re losing the battle because you’re still wasting your time trying to appeal to members of the Republican Party who hate you. Quit trying to be friends with the enemy. The truth is that they will not play your game and they don’t play fair. They don’t give a damn about America’s middle or low-income classes, only the insurance companies and their lobbyists who are financing their next election. You must take control and directly confront their cynicism and deceptions. Don’t be afraid to call them out on their lies and ties to the insurance industry, Mr. President.

If roles were reversed and the Republicans were still in power, do you think they would be playing nice with a minority of Democrats? Well? Did they play nice during the Bush Administration? How many bills did they pass using “Reconciliation” in the Senate?

Mr. President – you must explain clearly and forthrightly that a financially secure future for middle-class families, and for the entire nation, depends on reforming the entire health care industry and finding ways to control its runaway costs before it bankrupts the country and each and every individual.

It’s ironic that middle-class families have the most to lose if healthcare reform fails to pass. The problem is that most of them have yet to realize that fact. You’ve got to impress upon them what personal and financial pain they have to look forward to if you fail in your quest for universal, low-cost healthcare.

Without reform, it has been estimated that in ten years premiums for the average family’s health insurance coverage will cost nearly $25,000 per annum, and that’s based on current low inflationary rates. According to the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund, rates could reach as high as $30,000, pricing all but the wealthiest families completely out of the health insurance market. With costs that high, most medium and small businesses will be unable to afford to contribute anything toward subsidized health insurance plans for their employees.

The very rich can afford the best available health care with or without private or public insurance. Unfortunately, the American middle class, even those who are comfortable with their present insurance coverage, could soon find themselves under-insured or unable to get any affordable insurance coverage.

Your Republican and Fox News opponents are buying hundreds of daily sound bites accusing your program of being “socialized medicine” and allowing a “government takeover” of the “best healthcare system in the world!” They accuse you of wanting to set up “death panels” and using government bureaucrats to deny quality healthcare to the elderly and the sickest among us. They present this as a future probability under your plan, while at this very moment insurance companies are doing this every day in every state to every class of patient. Insurance companies are already making decisions about patients’ health care with only one objective: increasing insurance company profits.

I hate to admit it, but the Republican Party and Fox News’ decision to promote lies and half-truths are working – and continue to destroy your standing with American voters in all parts of the country. Why? Because so far you’ve refused to take a stand for truth and justice for middle-class and average working families. So far you have done far too little to effectively counter those charges. I sometimes wonder if you really care. Is your heart really in the fight?

Mr. President – now is the time to speak out forcefully against the liars and propagandists in and out of the political arena. Make it clear that simply because they wrap an American flag around their shoulders and carry a King James Bible in their hands, that does not make everything your opponents say “The Truth.” They have to realize that it’s not just for the maintenance of your political reputation that you should come out and force the truth to be told. After all, healthcare reform is for the benefit of those very same Bible-thumping, flag-waving, tea-bagging Republicans – and for the rest of us who depend on affordable access to doctors, clinics, and hospitals when the need arises.

If your healthcare reform programs fail, it will be the middle-class and low-income families, the very people who tend to believe most of the Republican Party’s lies, who will ultimately pay the highest price for the least amount of healthcare.

Help them. Help us all. Fight for us, Mr. President!

Editor’s Note: Chi Newman is a frequent contributor to Just One Opinion. She is our expert on all things Asian, especially Chinese food and culture, because she was born and raised there. Chi wrote this article for her own website at Chi-Newman.com and offered to let us publish it here. I bet you’ll have a craving for Chinese food that will last for days!

Its been several months since I contributed an article to my website and here at Just One Opinion. I’ve been really busy lately, but I felt like writing and sharing some of my Chinese recipes with you. These are not banquet dishes, these are family dishes.

In China, family dishes are called “shia fan,” which literally means dishes that make the rice go down. For common people this type of food can be quite inexpensive, but the ingredients are cooked with so much flavor by the adding of hot peppers, garlic, ginger and onions, that sometimes these “shia fan” dishes taste better than banquet dishes.

You do not need a big piece of meat. One chicken breast, a few shrimp, a pork chop or small piece of steak would be enough to feed a whole family. To these ingredients we add a little bit of this and a little of that – ingredients that are already in your refrigerator. You might have half a green pepper or red pepper, a carrot, some celery sticks, green onions – or some nuts like cashews, almonds or peanuts. Include ginger, garlic, hot pepper sauce, or flakes. Add these to the meat you have to make a very healthy and flavorful meal that will feed the whole family. Chinese hosts always serve rice on the side.

Once you know the art of stir frying, you can always find some things to make a beautiful dish. The actual cooking time is very short, but the preparation and cutting can take time. You’ll need many little bowls to keep each ingredient separate. Marinate the meat in the sauce you will have prepared, but each vegetable should be stir fried separately to retain its color and consistency.

Even in cooking we never forget to practice the “Yin-Yang” philosophy. There is never a Chinese dish that is all white or all dark. There are always contrasting colors and textures in keeping with our philosophy of balance and opposites.

CHICKEN AND CASHEWS

2 chicken breasts, cut into squares

2 egg whites, unbeaten
2 Tbs.of good white wine
1 1/2 Tbs cornstarch
Mix the above ingredients, and toss into the chicken breasts, let stand

2 slices of ginger, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
3 cloves crushed garlic

1 cup of cashews, or peanuts
1/2 green pepper (cut into squares)
1/2 red pepper (cut into squares)
5 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in boiling water till soft. Squeeze dry and cut into squares. (Any kind of fresh mushrooms can be used.)
2 stalks of celery, cut into cubes
Oil (preferably vegetable or peanut oil for frying)

SAUCE

1 1/2 Tbs red wine
1 1/2 Tbsp ketchup (for color)
1 1/2 tsp sugar
3 Tbsps soy sauce
1 Tbsp Hosing sauce (can be bought at any supermarket)
2 Tbsps of hot red pepper sauce (can be bought at any supermarket) I like the Sambal Oilek (ground fresh chili paste, it is made in the USA) (optional)

1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 Tbsp water

Cut chicken breast into squares and mix with unbeaten egg whites, wine and cornstarch. Let stand.
Heat enough oil to fry nuts, season and remove to bowl. Heat oil to fry green pepper, red pepper and celery till cooked but still crisp, season and remove to bowl. Heat oil to fry mushrooms, season and remove.

Heat 6 Tbsp oil till very hot, add ginger, green onions, garlic, till very hot and fragrant, add chicken till it turns white, then add the premixed sauce. Stir till completely mixed. Add the cornstarch and water to chicken to thicken. Now add vegetables and nuts to blend. Remove immediately to platter. Serve with white rice on the side.

Note: This dish has all the ingredients to make a healthy meal. You can exchange the vegetables to broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, or any other vegetables. Remember to keep the vegetables crisp and colorful in contrast with the dark meat. Also note how inexpensive it is to serve a whole meal that is not only healthy but delicious with just a few things you have at home.

HOT AND SOUR SOUP

This is an exciting soup full of contrasting flavors and texture, and a perfect example of the Yin-Yang that I talked about. It ranges from soft bean curd to chewy bamboo shoots. The pork blends well with the smoky shitake mushrooms, and the hot and sour taste is perfect for a cold winter day.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes:
5 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 Tbsps soya sauce
5 pre-soaked Chinese shitake mushrooms sliced, or any other mushroom of your choice
1/2 cup of bamboo shoots sliced into strips
1 cup pork sliced into thin strips

Add:
2 cakes of firm bean curd cut into cubes (well drained)
2 Tbsps fresh ground pepper
3 Tbsps rice vinegar, or any vinegar of your choice
3 Tbsps cornstarch mixed with some water to thicken

When soup comes to a full boil add 3 beaten eggs slowly to the broth. To serve add a few drops of sesame oil in each bowl for flavor and sprinkle some chopped coriander leaves.

SWEET AND SOUR PORK

A
1 lb. loin of pork
1 Tbsps sherry or red wine
2 Tbsps soya sauce
1 1/2 Tbsps cornstarch
Enough oil for deep frying

B
1 big yellow onion, cut into squares
1 big carrot, quartered
Enough oil to fry carrot and onion till cooked.
1 medium size can pineapple chunks, drained.

C
6 Tbsps sugar
4 Tbsps soya sauce
1 Tbsp red wine
2 Tbsps vinegar
4 Tbsps catsup
2 tsps pickle relish
a few drops of Tabasco sauce

1 Tbsp of cornstarch, mixed with 1/2 cup water.

Cut pork into 1 1/2 inch cubes. Mix well with A ingredients, except oil. Heat oil till very hot, and fry till golden brown. Turn out on a plate.

Heat about 4 Tbsps oil and stir fry carrots and onions till cooked. Add pineapple and remove to plate

Mix C ingredients in a large pot, except for the cornstarch. Add A and B ingredients. Let it come to a boil, add cornstarch mixture to thicken, remove immediately and serve.

CUCUMBER SALAD

6 pickling cucumbers, or 3 English cucumbers (unpeeled, or peeled if you wish)
3 slices of ginger, cut into thin strips
2 cloves of garlic, smashed
2 green onions, cut into small pieces
Mix well and add enough salt to coat. Cover and let stand for an hour or so. Drain well and wash with cold water. Pat dry completely.

Mix above ingredients and place in a serving bowl.

SAUCE

2 Tbsps soya sauce
2 Tbsps rice vinegar (or any vinegar of your choice)
2 Tbsps toasted sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp hot pepper sauce.
1 Tbsps white sesame seeds

Mix above ingredients, and pour over cucumbers. Mix well and place in refrigerator. Serve with the above dishes.

I hope you enjoy these dishes and if you have problems, contact me through my website.

Love, Chi

Our teacher, Mr. Robert Phillips, a man whom I admired greatly then and remember fondly now, stood before our class and made a statement that I still recall quite well. After he was finished, everyone in the class sat quietly in their seats. All of us there that day were either confused, scared, or just plain angry when he finished his little speech to us. He did not ask for comments and did not entertain any questions. He simply went back to supervising the production of the next issue of our school newspaper, the “Poly Spotlight.”

Because of its particular timing and its warning of trouble ahead for America, I think what Mr. Phillips said to us that day might be instructive and of interest to the readers of Just One Opinion.

Please realize that it’s been nearly fifty years since I heard Mr. Phillips give this speech. I have trouble remembering what someone said to me yesterday -- so trying to recall exactly what was said in my high school classroom forty-nine years ago will not be the easiest thing for me to do. But I’m going to try my best to present his words as accurately as I can, while preserving his message and intent. It’s true, I can’t remember exactly every word he said, but I sure remember his message. Here it is paraphrased to the best of my ability:

Mr. Robert Phillips addressing the students of his Journalism class, Riverside (CA) Poly High School, November 9, 1960 (reconstructed from memory):

“You know me -- I don’t usually bring up politics in this class except as part of your training on how to present a subject when you write a news article. You know that I believe in being fair and impartial as a reporter, and that I tend to grade you harshly whenever I see your personal bias or opinion sneaking into one of your assignments.

“But this is a sad day for me because I think that it is a sad day for America. As you know, John F. Kennedy was elected to be our next President last night. I have nothing against Catholics and I know that many of you belong to that faith, as are many of my own friends and some of my relations. That’s not the point.

“My point is that Democrat John Kennedy is young and immature and comes from a very dedicated Roman Catholic family from liberal Massachusetts. As our President, I can not see how he can serve both his religion and his country at the same time.

“What choice will he have if the Pope tells him to take a particular stand or orders him to do something that would favor the Catholic Church over other religions in this country? How can he possibly say ‘no’ to the head of his church?

“We’ve always had Protestant presidents in this country and there is a reason for that. Protestants don’t answer to one man in the Vatican. John Kennedy will have no choice but to do what he is told by the Pope or face excommunication from the Catholic Church.

“Yes, he’s young and good looking -- he’s very bright and has written a best seller (Profiles in Courage), but he hasn’t faced the real test of leadership in America. Do we want America to become a Catholic country like France, Spain or Italy? Do we want the Inquisition to be instituted in this country like it was in Europe for over 300 years? Do we want the Catholic Church to become our national religion like it is in Mexico?

“That, my students, is what we face in the next four years. Maybe not -- he may play it safe his first four years and then allow Rome to take over and dictate our future during his second term. I don’t know how it will happen -- but I know that our country is in deep trouble and we have only seen the very tip of the iceberg.

“Richard Nixon had more votes than John Kennedy. By all rights he should be our next President. But Kennedy manipulated the system so that he only had to win the Electoral College votes, not the vote of the people. Richard Nixon could be the greatest president in this country’s history if he ever gets the chance. He is honest, a good Quaker from California who believes in religious freedom, and an active anti-Communist who loves America. He served under President Eisenhower, so he has been trained by the very best President to serve in your lifetime.

“Kennedy is a good looking man with a pretty wife and cute little girl. He could become very popular among those who like movie stars but don’t really care about what happens to America. My guess is that after four years, if he doesn’t set up a Roman Catholic dictatorship in America during his first term, that he will be voted out of office and the Pope will find someone else to try and take over America.  If good Americans stand up for what is right, John Kennedy will not be reelected and instead will become just a footnote in our history as the first -- and hopefully the last -- Catholic to be elected president in our country.”

Looking back at history, Mr. Phillips, in his soft-spoken but deeply felt rhetoric, got one thing absolutely right:

No other Catholic has been elected President since John Kennedy. Surprisingly, Joseph Biden is the first Catholic ever to be elected to the office of Vice-President.

But Mr. Phillips also misread the course of both John Kennedy’s presidency and the next fifty years of our country’s history:

John Kennedy did not take any action to give the Catholic Church an advantage within United States politics or culture.

The first Pope to make an official visit to the United States was Pius VI in October, 1965 during the term of President Lyndon Johnson (Disciples of Christ).

Pope John Paul II was was invited six times to visit the United States: the term of Jimmy Carter (Baptist); Ronald Reagan (Presbyterian) -- three times; and Bill Clinton (Baptist) -- twice.

President Kennedy’s administration was noted for effective management of the federal government, for taking on both the Mafia and the corrupt Teamsters Union, and his intelligent dealings with European and South American countries. His general popularity among all groups, except for extreme southern state right-wing Republicans, continued to rise until his assassination in 1963.

Richard Nixon, despite landslide victories in 1968 and 1972, mishandled the economy by freezing wages and increasing taxes, allowed the Viet Nam War to continue for another five years, and abolished the gold standard. His popularity evaporated quickly after his second election among all voter categories. He completely destroyed his reputation and presidency by lying and trying to cover-up the scandal of the Watergate break-in. He only avoided sure impeachment by resigning during the second year of his second term. Even his hand-picked Vice President, Spiro Agnew, was forced to resign in disgrace to face criminal charges in his home state of Maryland. In spite of some impressive diplomatic gains with Europe and especially China, Richard Nixon’s presidency is generally considered to have been scandalous and badly mismanaged.

After I graduated from high school in 1961, I only saw Mr. Phillips one more time when I happened to see him several years later while shopping in a hardware store. He was still as friendly and soft-spoken as I remembered him and he seemed truly happy to see me again. It never occurred to me to ask him if he ever changed his mind about John Kennedy.

I don’t know if Mr. Phillips is still alive, but if he somehow happens to read this, I hope that he understands that I was pretty much a conservative Republican for many years because of what he said that day. I also want him to know that I understood that his words were supposed to help us to understand his view of our country’s direction at that particular moment in time and that he did not mean any disrespect to the office of the president.

History seems to repeat itself, no matter our good intentions. Some of the same attitudes that Mr. Phillips expressed about John Kennedy are now being directed toward President Obama.

It is clear that the far right in the United States is doing everything it can to paint Obama with the same broad brush of slanderous lies and rumors. They say that he is trying to overthrow constitutional American government, steal our freedoms away from us, and that he is really a Muslim in disguise. They assert that he is trying to turn our government into a communist or socialist state -- some even claiming that he is a “Manchurian Candidate” born in Kenya, trained in Indonesia, and put into power by New Age, One World Government, Priory of Sion internationalists who want to make slaves out of “freedom loving true Americans.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K1iYEobR6I

The sad thing is that so many patriotic, god-fearing Americans -- and others like Mr. Phillips in 1960 -- sincerely believe these lies and false rumors to be true and are afraid of what might be in their future. Fear makes people take shameful and self-destructive actions that would not normally be a part of their daily lives. The far right-wing element in this country is doing everything they can to fan those flames of fear -- just as they did during John Kennedy’s campaign and presidency.

How will those sincere, but deluded Americans feel about Obama after he leaves office in eight years? All I can say is that I hope to live long enough to be able to answer that question.

[Read a followup article about Mr. Robert Phillips. Click here...]

Ever since Charles Darwin introduced the world to the evolution of life forms by means of natural selection, debate has centered upon the perceived challenge to one’s faith by the theory of evolution. Now the debate has expanded to the public school classroom where religious fundamentalists advocate that “alternative theories to evolution” be taught. The candidate usually proposed for such “alternatives” is intelligent design creationism, albeit the term creationism is usually omitted from the moniker by its proponents so as to avoid challenging the Establishment Clause of the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The basic tenant of Intelligent Design is that some biological structures (e.g., the vertebrate eye, the bacterial flagellum, bird’s wings) or some biological processes (e.g., blood clotting mechanisms, cellular replication) are too complex to have been produced by natural processes (natural selection) alone; therefore, these structures must have been “intelligently designed.” Although ID supporters ultimately have to acknowledge that to be intelligently designed, there must be an intelligent “designer.” And that this too represents a challenge to the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. So strategically, most ID advocates cautiously avoid such obvious extensions of their claim.

So is ID an alternative scientific theory to evolution? No! Theories are “…in science, well-substantiated explanations of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate tested facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses.” (National Academy of Sciences, 1998) And, ID proponents provide no testable hypotheses to substantiate their claims nor do they provide a model that meets the stringent criteria of scientific theory. Therefore, calling ID (creationism) a theory is inappropriate, as it doesn’t begin to approach the robustness of scientific theory. Furthermore, cloaking ID in the language of science by using “theory” does not make it scientific; science has higher standards than mere assertion.

ID has as its basic tenant, a fallacy of false alternative; that those biological structures and processes that science hasn’t been able to adequately explain must be the result of a supernatural intelligent design force or agent (designer). What ID proponents fail to recognize is that currently unexplained does not mean always inexplicable. Science is dynamic and answers may be on the horizon for those questions that remain unanswered. By the very nature of science, there will always be questions that remain unanswered because in the process of answering a question or solving a problem, more questions arise. This is the very nature and a most admirable quality of science. New questions will always be formulated.

If ID proponents want to present their ideas in the science classroom, they must first submit testable hypotheses to the scientific community for evaluation and validation, or, per a contemporary version of Francis Bacon’s quote: “Scientific validation must precede what is taught in the science classroom; we do not teach as science what we hope will be validated in the future.”

Here is a video of Dr. Forbes lecture on “Intelligent Design.” It is long, so clear your schedule, but it is very interesting and well presented.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcBs0ZxQ9VY

[Photo credits: "Baby World" photo by Felix Atsoram, Argentina; "3D Earth" graphic by Jamie Woods, Brisbane, Australia]

It’s about the doubt I’ve always had about so-called man-made global warming. I admit that I didn’t particularly like Al Gore as a vice-president, but I felt that he was relatively harmless during his time in office. I actually think he’s caused a lot more harm in his post political years with his scientifically unsubstantiated cries that “the sky is falling.”

Gore, along with a media that is ever ready to jump on the wrong bandwagon, harangued the deniers, a growing cadre of scientists who have been expressing their doubts about the science of “human caused global warming.” 

In many countries throughout the world, global warming skeptics are outnumbering believers by as many as ten to one. In the United States, Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the UN’s 2007 climate summary on global warming. That’s thirteen times the number of scientists who authored the summary. Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist, calls man-made global warming “the worst scientific scandal in history.”

For me, as a lay observer, the mass balance of it all has just never made sense. The associated sciences, chemistry, math – and my own common sense - makes it impossible for me to comprehend the premise that mankind and our machines are having any major impact on the this massive planet’s climate. 

One major factor: The Ice Ages

It’s generally conceded that the earth has had four major ice ages dating back almost 3 billion years. While an ice sheet on Antarctica began to grow about 20 million years ago, the current (yes, current) ice age started over 2 million years ago. Since that time there have been cycles of glaciation with ice sheets advancing and retreating on 40,000 and 100,000 year time cycles. 

There are glacials (when ice sheets advance) and interglacials (when the ice sheets retreat). The last glacial period ended about 10,000 years ago. The earth is currently in an interglacial period that has lasted almost 11,000 years; all that remain are the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets. While it is generally conceded that interglacials last about 12,000 years, there is also an argument that this interglacial period may mirror one that lasted 28,000 years.

Forty years ago in Alaska, the face of Portage Glacier, located just south of Anchorage, was right next to the parking lot at the visitor center. If you go there now you won’t be able to see it from the visitor center and you’ll have to take a boat to get close to it.

Do you begin to get a sense of the immensity of what happens to the earth? Given this information, does it surprise you that the polar ice cap is retreating? It’s been retreating for a very long time. Do you think that you or anybody else could have done anything to either start or stop this process?

Another arguable cause: Sunspots

Al Gore would have you believe that we have global warming that is causing sunspots to disappear. That is akin to saying a mosquito makes an elephant step out of the way – and may explain why Al thought he should be president. For a while, I subscribed to the idea that sunspots were a major culprit in global warming. It is more correct to say the sun drives the earth’s climate. In other words, the activity of the sun can cause global warming or global cooling. There is heated debate on both sides of the argument, but there is no question that the sun impacts our climate.

A study points to the sun’s impact: Solar Energy

The amount of solar energy that reaches earth can vary due to changes in the sun’s output. One study by Rhodes Fairbridge of Columbia University with help from NASA found that the sun embarks on a new cycle of orbits about every 179 years. We are currently in a cool period that began in 1996, and if the pattern holds, the effects will be felt beginning in 2010 – and some predict will begin three decades of severe cold. Last year, in Anchorage we had the third coldest, wettest summer since readings have been recorded. How many of you around the “Lower 48″ had the winter from hell in 2008-2009?

The most misunderstood factor of all: The Greenhouse Effect

“The Greenhouse Effect” is the rise in temperature that the earth experiences because gases in the atmosphere trap energy from the sun. Without these gases, heat would escape back into space.  Scientists disagree about how much the absence of these gases would impact earth’s temperature, but they all agree earth would be much colder- from 30°F to 60°F colder. In either case – life as we know it would be over.

Not the major culprit: Carbon Dioxide 

Water vapor is earth’s most significant greenhouse gas. It accounts for about 95% of earth’s greenhouse effect, and it is 99.999% of natural origin. Other greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and other miscellaneous gases are also mostly of natural origin. Human activities contribute slightly to greenhouse gas concentrations through farming, manufacturing, power generation, and transportation. In reality these emissions are dwarfed when compared to emissions from natural sources we can’t do anything about. According to many scientists even the most costly efforts to limit human emissions would have a very small -  and probably undetectable – effect on the global climate.

Skip from the concept of natural global warming to the concept of man-made global warming. One reason that man-made global warming has never made sense to me is because the earth’s surface is 71.11% water. That leaves 28.89% of the earth’s surface as land, with huge areas that aren’t populated or are un-livable. 

The Human Footprint Map was completed by a collaboration of The Wildlife Conservation Society, Columbia University, and NASA a few years ago. The purpose of the map was to identify human impact around the earth. I think that what the map does best is to show massive areas on this planet where there is almost no human impact. These are represented by unpopulated areas of Canada, Alaska, Antarctica, Greenland, northern South America, north Africa, Siberia, Australia, and other smaller areas.

The areas mentioned above all have a “human impact factor” of 0-1 on the map’s scale of 100 – meaning that there is little or no impact. On the other hand, huge areas where the human impact is actually much greater are regions that are not industrialized. All of this makes it almost impossible to measure the true impact of humans and their activities on earth. 

Considering the information that I’ve presented above regarding ice ages, sunspots, the effects of the sun’s heat, and the natural greenhouse effect - I believe, as many scientists do, that the human factor in global warming is relatively miniscule.

Environmental Responsibility

Don’t take all of this as a step away from environmental responsibility. Cleaning up emissions, regulating de-forestation, and finding alternatives to the use of fossil fuels are all common sense measures that need to be accomplished. Even if humans are having a tiny impact on earth’s climate, it is still too much. Let’s approach it that way, and not run around like Al Gore, blindly claiming the sky is falling. 

Some efforts, like the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill, accomplish some things that are good and needed, while going overboard on others. The cost of the bill over the next fifteen years will be $190 billion, and the oversight requirements will be daunting and expensive. In a fashion that is all too familiar in the Obama administration, there are elements in the bill that are very socialistic: fifteen percent of the revenue from the selling of pollution permits sold by the government will be used to offset increased energy costs for low and moderate income households and the “cash for clunkers” program. Workers displaced due to new emission regulations will be entitled to 156 weeks of income supplements, a health-care supplement, a job search supplement, and a moving supplement.  That’s for three whole years – sign me up!

We have a home in Arizona. A few million years ago Arizona was completely covered in ice. Oh, boy! Wouldn’t Al Gore and his fellow criers have had quite a time with that one when that ice started to melt.

Michael Jackson died because his heart unexpectedly stopped working, and when it did his death took everyone around him by complete surprise. A few of his friends suspected he was ruining his health by overwork and over-medication with pain pills – but none expected that he would actually die from a damaged heart.

But maybe Michael Jackson’s heart was damaged in many ways, many years ago, back when he was still a very young child.

In 1965, Michael’s mother, Katherine Jackson, became a Jehovah’s Witness. Katherine had always been very religious and a Baptist, but on the suggestion of a friend began to study with the Witnesses and fully accepted the teachings of the Watchtower Society as her new faith. Her husband, Joseph, never became a Witness, but apparently allowed her to raise all of nine of their children in her new faith. Daughters Rebbie and LaToya, as well as her son Michael, became the most active Witnesses in the family. The rest of the siblings either became inactive or simply quit the religion when they became of age.

In an article written for BeliefNet.com in 2000, Michael described his childhood this way:

“More than anything, I wished to be a normal little boy. I wanted to build tree houses and go to roller-skating parties. But very early on, this became impossible. I had to accept that my childhood would be different than most others. But that’s what always made me wonder what an ordinary childhood would be like.”

Many of us who were also raised as Jehovah’s Witnesses can relate to what Michael was trying to say. It is almost impossible to have a “normal” childhood being raised within a very controlling religion. As a Witness child you’re discouraged from playing with the neighborhood kids, you can’t join the Little League, or engage in high school sports.

Going to school for a Jehovah’s Witness child presents constant choices, issues, and teasing because they won’t salute the flag, sing the National Anthem, celebrate the other kids’ birthdays, or engage in any activity that relates to a holiday. Singing in the school chorus or glee club, or playing in the orchestra, presents obvious problems around Christmas and other national holidays. After all, how can you be in the marching band and not play the National Anthem?

Plus, there is the fact that as a Jehovah’s Witness child, you are going to be discouraged from going to college or university. So why waste your time taking all those college-prep courses in science, languages, or mathematics? There’s no reason at all to try to earn a scholarship if you’re not going to try for a college level education.

Michael Jackson was faced with all of those issues, plus being forced into becoming a full-time entertainer at the very early age of ten. In his home, father Joseph was clearly the boss and tough disciplinarian. Joseph could be a very harsh taskmaster; Michael and his brothers were expected to practice their music at every opportunity – they had little or no time to play or just kick back and be normal children.

On Friday and Saturday nights, when all the other kids were home watching TV, going to movies, having dates, or spending time with their families, the Jackson boys were performing in local bars or making concert appearances in other towns.

For Michael, only Sundays offered some respite from the career being forced upon him by his father. His Sundays were dedicated to the other master in his household – his religion – Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Michael continues his description of his early life (again quoted from the BeliefNet.com article):
“But what I wanted more than anything was to be ordinary… [Sunday] was the day I was able to step away from my unique life and glimpse the everyday… Sundays were my day for ‘Pioneering,’ the term used for the missionary work that Jehovah’s Witnesses do. We would spend the day in the suburbs of Southern California, going door to door or making the rounds of a shopping mall, distributing our Watchtower magazine. I continued my pioneering work for years and years after my career had been launched… Up to 1991, the time of my Dangerous tour, I would don my disguise of fat suit, wig, beard, and glasses and head off to live in the land of everyday America, visiting shopping plazas and tract homes in the suburbs. I loved to set foot in all those houses and catch sight of the shag rugs and La-Z-Boy armchairs with kids playing Monopoly and grandmas baby-sitting and all those wonderfully ordinary and, to me, magical scenes of life. Many, I know, would argue that these things seem like no big deal. But to me they were positively fascinating.”

Later on in his life, Michael seemed to develop an almost eerie passion to be with young children. He had relatively close relationships with Emmanuel Lewis, the diminutive star of TV’s “Diff’rent Strokes,” and Macaulay Culkin, the child star of the “Home Alone” movie trilogy, both much younger than he. He described his connection and special attraction to young children this way:

“[When I witnessing]…the funny thing is, no adults ever suspected who this strange bearded man was. But the children, with their extra intuition, knew right away. Like the Pied Piper of Hamlin, I would find myself trailed by eight or nine children by my second round of the shopping mall. They would follow and whisper and giggle, but they wouldn’t reveal my secret to their parents. They were my little aides. Hey, maybe you bought a magazine from me. Now you’re wondering, right? Church was a treat in its own right. It was again a chance for me to be ‘normal.’ ”

We all have to grow up eventually and face the realities of life as adults. Unfortunately, Michael Jackson never really grew up, and it seems clear that he did not want to. His body continued to grow, but by restricting his body’s natural development (he was reportedly 6-feet tall with a body weight around 120 pounds – about 60-70 pounds under norm), removing all or most of his body hair, and always speaking in a low volume, high pitched voice, he tried to remain a pubescent teenager. One observer commented that Jackson, either by design or because of psychological damage, essentially stopped growing socially at age 14.

You may look younger than you really are, but society’s norms do not look kindly upon middle-aged men who are obsessed with associating with young, unrelated children. Forty-year old male babysitters are not in high demand, but this is exactly what Michael Jackson wanted and tried to be.

His creation of his Neverland Park on his estate in Santa Barbara County, California was designed specifically to draw young visitors to his home. It’s true that many of these children were suffering from diseases and some were from poor or disadvantaged neighborhoods – and it’s also true that many were accompanied by a parent or guardian. His young visitors and those who accompanied them described their time at Jackson’s Neverland as “happy, fun, unique, much like going to Disneyland.”

It was Jackson’s obsession to be close to young unrelated children that eventually got him into serious trouble in the early 1990s, and formally charged with felonies in 2003-2005. He eventually paid out millions of dollars in one case and barely managed to survive his criminal court case in 2005. It is true that Jackson was found “not guilty” of all charges by the jury in that case, but in the court of public opinion he would be found guilty and punished severely for his behavior and poor judgment over the last few years of his life. His reputation and wealth would never fully recover from the damage inflicted during that court case.

Jackson’s closest friends and family continued to support him in spite of the accusations plus several incidents of allegedly inappropriate behavior with other people’s children. Most of them still expressed their feelings that Jackson was treated unfairly and punished for his totally innocent and kindly acts toward children. Almost everyone that has been close to him personally remains adamant that Michael Jackson would never hurt a child – simply because he loved children and loved being with them.

My own opinion (which is of course is “Just One Opinion”) is that they are right. My opinion has changed somewhat since his court trial and I now doubt that Michael Jackson ever intended to molest or hurt a child in any way.

I do still hold the opinion that his social development was retarded by the excessive discipline he received from his father, Joseph, plus the lack of normal social development due to his Jehovah’s Witness upbringing by his mother. It should be obvious to anyone that is paying attention that the man did not have a “normal childhood.”

We all see our life through our own eyes. Inside, I am still 20-years old and 145 pounds – but what I see every day is a 200 pound, 65-year old man in the mirror. That’s not me! It can’t be!

Michael Jackson’s own song hit, “Man in the Mirror,” touched on this phenomenon to some degree. I think that when Jackson looked in the mirror he saw a boy in his mid-teens – thin, hairless, beardless, and youthful – and he tried very hard to keep himself that way in reality.

When he was with young teenage boys and girls, he acted out his own childish fantasies with them, playing their games, singing their songs, acting silly and being stupid. He was trying to remain ageless, unchanging, just as he would have been when he was still a teenager.

During the trial, Jackson was accused of having pornographic magazines hidden away in his house, and this evidence was suggested as being proof that he was a child molester. But for all of us who were teenage boys, especially in the 1950s and 60s – didn’t we all sneak Playboy and Penthouse magazines into our rooms to share with our friends? Weren’t we curious about naked women? Didn’t many of us growing up in the 1970s and 80s have posters of Farrah Fawcett (rest in peace, Farrah) in a wet bathing suit hanging on our walls or on the back of our bedroom doors? Didn’t we hide our “dirty magazines” between our mattresses or under our junk in the closet so our mother’s wouldn’t see them? Remember sitting around with our friends and sharing nasty, gross, or sexually charged jokes that we had heard?

I think that is what Michael was really doing. He was reliving the teenage years he never got to enjoy like the rest of us – he was too busy working, traveling, and making money for his family. No wonder he busted away from the Jackson singing group and went out on his own at 18.

I must say that I was a fan of Michael Jackson during the peak of his career. Not a devoted fan, but still a fan of his music, an admirer of his many talents, and a fan that was cognizant of his many good works and philanthropies.

I was also very disappointed in Michael Jackson. I disliked his self-indulgent spending, the way he managed to snatch the Beatles’ music catalog away from his friend Paul McCartney, and the self-destructive damage he did to his face and body with constant plastic surgery.

To look at that handsome young man on the cover of “Off the Wall,” or the attractive, and athletic performer in the videos of “Thriller” and “Billy Jean” – and then compare the disastrous cumulative results of all of his facial mutilations twenty-five years later – was truly sad and heartbreaking for me.

So who’s to blame? I can not judge all of the players in Michael Jackson’s life. His father, Joseph, certainly had much to do with what Michael became, both professionally and psychologically. Katherine, Michael’s mother, made choices for herself and her children that clearly resulted in their socially dysfunctional behavior and unhappy relationships. No one can grow up as a Jehovah’s Witness child and not be scarred socially and psychologically; many of us manage to get over it and go on with normal lives – but Michael Jackson? Probably not.

Of course, Michael must share the blame and take responsibility for his own actions. His friends often tried to steer him away from his obsession with being around young children – but he wouldn’t listen.

His friends and business associates tried to rein in his excessive overspending and poor investment choices – but he wouldn’t listen.

Many doctors and surgeons counseled him against undergoing further plastic surgeries because of the damage he was doing to his face and health – but he wouldn’t listen.

And now he’s dead. Michael Jackson, the talented singer, dancer, performer, song writer – “The King of Pop” – is dead.

And now he’s dead. Michael Jackson, the generous philanthropist and friend to so many people, no matter their race, religion, creed, background, color of their skin or their disease – friend and stranger alike – is dead.

And now he’s dead. Michael Jackson, the young child that was never allowed to be normal, severely disciplined by a sometimes cruel father, raised as a Jehovah’s Witness by a mother caught up in a cult, denied the normal teenaged relationships that we all cherished – the little boy that never really grew up to be a man – is dead.

So Michael, we’re all so sorry that your damaged heart stopped beating and that you have left this world forever. But whatever your eternal destiny might be, no matter where you may end up, may you rest in peace…

Click here to go to the original BeliefNet.com article by Michael Jackson