Do you #Care?

By Dan Barber

Needing someone to care is ingrained in every human being…and stepping back from my own selfish human needs and taking a long view of others who don’t have anyone to care or to love them makes me feel sad.

It doesn’t take much effort to acknowledge others…eye contact, a smile or nod could help make someone’s day. However, human contact can be tricky. My attractive daughter told me that she and her equally attractive friend can’t make friendly eye contact or smile at men while running routine errands. That behavior could create a situation that causes the man to make an unwanted advance toward them. Also, if a spouse witnessed their significant other smiling at someone of the opposite sex could cause trouble.

Now our society has made human interaction even more difficult because it has been reengineered to the point where confusion ensues in how to politely address gender when speaking to a stranger, i.e. do you address them as Ma’am, Sir, or Hey you?  It’s especially terrifying in a public unisex bathroom!

Writers are now encouraged to call everyone “they” to avoid confusion and to save column inches in the editorial hole of a publication. This makes me think “they are out to get us.” It can be politically incorrect or uncomfortable to ask “who is they, so don’t ask.”

We can now watch a television newscast report of a serious criminal running loose in our community who is armed and dangerous and “if you see this person, stay clear of them”…a physical description is now politically incorrect to report… sorry, you’re on your own.

Other situations of human contact can be deadly. Without the anthropological or social knowledge in some environments, an innocent attempt at conversation as simple as, “Hi, do you live here” can lead to a violent response…especially if the person was the subject of the above newscast or a member of the local street gang.

Cultural differences can also lead to racial misunderstandings. I am a white man who wishes I could find the privilege that some people say us white people have. Don’t get me wrong, I know from the history of our country people have been severely mistreated. As a child of the 50s, I saw people being mistreated just because they were the “wrong” color. Then as a teen of the 60s I witnessed an uprising of the human spirit. I heard about a quote from a speech Dr. Martin Luther King gave about his dream that one day everyone would be judged on the merit of their character not the color of their skin.

In the four decades since that time we have gone through an upheaval in social changes not to cement Dr. King’s dream into our social norm, but to reverse the meaning of that dream to “I deserve special treatment because of the color of my skin.”

Jim Crow laws ruled the South for 100 years. The only comfort that blacks had during this period was maybe the segregationist rule of “separate but equal.” According to Wikipedia, “Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law that justified and permitted racial segregation as not being in breach of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which guaranteed equal protection under the law to all citizens, and other federal civil rights laws. Under the doctrine, the government was allowed to require that services, facilities, public accommodations, housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation be separated along racial lines, provided that the quality of each group's public facilities was equal.”

Do we really need separate things today based on race and expect them to be equal to everyone’s interests or understanding?

Are we going back to those “bad old days” because we are afraid of losing our cultural identity or just in need of someone to care about who we are?

Wouldn’t it be great if we could just be judged on the merit of our character?

Saturday Morning Post: Whatever happened to human contact?

Saturday Morning Post: Whatever happened to human contact?: By Dan Barber Looking back my initial phobia about the potential advances and dangers of computer technology was spot on. I was alw...

Whatever happened to human contact?

By Dan Barber

Looking back my initial phobia about the potential advances and dangers of computer technology was spot on.

I was always afraid of the questions the geeky looking, yet super smart young people posing as sales clerks in the computer stores would ask me while I was shopping around for my first computer. I was afraid of sounding stupid when they were asking me what I wanted to do with my computer. “Huh…plug it in and look up stuff on the interweb.”

What really amazes me is how the U.S. Government made me into a web designer/webmaster…just because I knew how to type, spell and maybe put together simple sentences as a Public Affairs Officer and former Navy Journalist. 

I couldn’t convince my bosses at the time to hire one of the geeky looking, yet super smart young people at the computer store to do those chores...probably because they wanted too much money to work for the government.

I am one of you…wondering what in the heck went wrong with our government’s management of websites. I believe the answer to that is “a lack of knowledge combined with the fear of the dangers computer technology and budget constraints.”

One of my responsibilities as a Public Affairs Officer was to approve anything placed on our public facing website. In an effort to save money my bosses decided that if I was the approving official for our website then I could learn how to design web pages and also be the webmaster. That meant that I spent the last 15 years of my career arguing with people about why they couldn’t put something on our website!

I have discovered that it is darn near impossible to take care of any kind of business today without the use of a computer…no need to speak to another human being face-to-face at all!

Want to buy a new suit?  Don’t know your size? No problem, instead of having a tailor there to measure you, just take your measurements as instructed by the suit-selling.com (ss.com) store so you can feed those measurements into their database. Of course, you’d also need to select the color and available material for your new suit, but instead of rummaging through the various color and material samples at a store, you can just click on the good looking suit model on your computer screen and match the color and material samples that are available at ss.com.

You can then enter your credit card information over the ss.com “guaranteed to be secure” internet connection for payment. When payment is received your new suit will be shipped to you within two business days.

Two weeks later you log on to ss.com to find out why you haven’t received your new suit yet, even though the payment was received by their company. After reading the “frequently asked questions” on their website, you are directed to call a customer relations line because apparently your question wasn’t frequently asked…finally, a very friendly human being to talk to whose primary language is not your language comes on the line. They try hard to assure you that your problem will be taken care of immediately and if you aren’t satisfied please visit their website at ss.com.

A week later an individual working in a warehouse owned by, a geeky looking, yet a super smart young person, uses a faulty scanner to locate your new suit off the shelf and sends it along on a conveyor belt to be packed for shipment. Soon your dusty new wrinkled suit is dropped off by your front door.

If your new suit hasn't been stolen by the time you get home from work you excitedly open up the box to try on the suit…only to be disappointed that it does not look the same on you as it did the good looking suit model on ss.com website or it’s the wrong color, material, size etc…

You then go on ss.com where once again you are directed to the frequently asked section to file your complaint, only to discover that your complaint isn't frequent enough to be listed before you can call their customer relations expert located in Bangladesh! 

There isn’t a salesman standing in front of you to yell at or punch in the nose so the next best thing is to punch out ss.com on your computer monitor.

Now you are back at the computer store to purchase a new computer monitor, where a geeky looking, yet super smart young person ask you “what kind of monitor do you need?” 

Based on the number of computer monitors you go through you might want, “a cheap one.”

#Hollywood egos are out of control

By Dan Barber

As a regular person who enjoys escapism through watching movies and TV programs, I am starting to run out of stuff to entertain me.

This should be a warning to those people who strive to work in the film and television industry. Don’t piss off your audience to the point where they no longer like you.

I understand that to be an actor takes a person with a huge ego who needs constant feeding from adoring fans. But the nature of the beast is once the actor becomes overwhelmingly successful it becomes difficult for them to live a private life.  That causes a danger to the individual of having their character flaws exposed from many sides. If an individual starts believing their own publicity releases as being God’s gift to the masses they run the risk of destroying their own employability in the entertainment industry.

Most people, regardless of occupation, like recognition for the work they do. But, most people view those who seek or ask for recognition for their work as being flawed…or they work for an incompetent boss.

How many times have you walked into a nice office building and noticed a clean mirrored shine to the lobby floor? When I see that, I think of the custodian who labored the night before to make that floor shine and hope that the individual takes great pride in their work. Also, I hope the trust in the business I have to conduct in that building is honestly reflected in that floor.

Perhaps I’m being manipulated into believing falsely. Maybe the custodian who labors in that building fears the loss of their job if there is a flaw anywhere in the floor. If that’s the case, should I be concerned about the business I need to conduct in that building?

The older and wiser I get the more pessimistic I become. Maybe I’ve outgrown my sense of naiveté like I’ve outgrown my sense of immortality or my sense of trust in self. When I was young I could climb a ladder or tall fence to gain access to my roof to make repairs to a leak without fear of failure. Now just the thought of doing that scares me.

My advice to actors is to be honest in your craft and talent because if you have to rely on a writer to create your “shiny” personality then you're doomed to failure because you will eventually be exposed as a “dull” phony in your industry. 

Also, you should avoid being used to manipulate political partisanship; that risks ticking, off at least half, or more of your audience from the start.

Instead of asking or demanding recognition that you may or may not deserve, strive to provide through your chosen occupation the quality and believable escapism your audience deserves. Make us laugh, cry or cheer with your performance don’t make us cringe from your exposed faulty personality.

I am running out of a source of entertainment to help me escape reality.

We are so screwed

By Dan Barber

It seems that from the number of FB posts people are more interested in what they are having for dinner than being interested in why other people are going hungry.

I suppose social media is allowing people the opportunity to escape this bleak reality by counting the number of “hits” or “likes” on what they post.

I’ve also noticed that more and more people don’t much give a damn about serving other people unless there is something in it for them. Our society has turned itself upside down because we the people have allowed the wrong people to manipulate all of us. I get messages all the time from enterprising individuals inviting me to sign up for their service (at a monetary cost) which promises thousands of “hits” or “likes” for my posts. I’ve never believed in buying friends or even asking for recognition…neither of those options is worth having.

I have become jaded with a pessimistic outlook rather than an optimistic hope. The older I get the crankier I become. Perhaps it’s because of our upside down society. I apologize to anyone trying to be nice to me and I just nod and smile without returning a genuine nicety, it is becoming harder for me to separate patronizing bull stool from genuine politeness.

On this day, I mourn the death of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream. With President Obama, we had a promise of something better… of hope and change, but it turns out our first black President was still just voted into office based on the color of his skin…not the merit of his character. Because of that, our entire society is in danger of collapse.

In the news today, I’ve read that just 62 people are wealthier than half of the world’s population combined. How did that happen? Interest-free loans to the world’s largest banks from “we the people” and blind trust in some of our media and politicians to protect us, that's how.  .But it gets worse because we’ve failed to learn from history by allowing economic policies based on fantasy and lies we may face another depression worse than we faced earlier in the 20^th century.

The only way we can recover is to study many sources of information. 

One example of blatant bias is "New Yorker" writer; Jane Mayer's effort to demonize one political ideology in her book “Dark Money” through her connection with the liberal media. 

If one is to inform readers about the history of wealthy dynastic families and how they affect politics today it is important to address all of them not just cherry-picked favorites. 

This is how the media can endanger our freedom in America. We need an honest debate between ideas not propaganda in an attempt to empower a tyrannical government. We the people must look at all sides of issues to decide what's best for us. When the media fails to honestly inform and in the process looses all credibility who are we going to trust. If Mayer wanted to do a history lesson she should have mentioned that Roosevelt’s family seed money for their wealth came from the Opium trade in the Orient; the Kennedy family seed money for their wealth came from rum running during prohibition; currently, the Clinton's political and family wealth is likely from influence peddling with foreign governments through their foundation.

My tip to keep from being manipulated is to pay attention.

How can we tell if the lunatics are running the asylum?

By Dan Barber

How can we tell if the lunatics are running the asylum? The short answer is, just look around.

Obama's promise of a transparent administration seems to have come to naught.  Now he’s looking around in the dark trying to fix his own failed policies that have all come home to roost in his final year’s challenge to save his own legacy.

Enough of the tired, but appropriate, clichés.

Obama picked all the wrong examples to try his hand at social re-engineering. Remember his attempt to smooth over the racism misunderstanding early in his administration with a “beer” summit between Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley who was only trying to do his job of protecting Gates home?  The absent-minded professor forgot his house keys so he was trying to break into his own house. Sergeant Crowley didn’t know that the break-in underway was being committed by the homeowner. And the homeowner thought that it was beneath his professorship dignity to comply with the law officer.

That example” blew up” in Obama’s face when he picked sides with a “knee jerk reaction?  

Important policy decisions only became worse as time went on because then we had the “Hands up, don’t shoot” false narrative from Ferguson, Missouri that did nothing for the good people who lived and worked in that community. However, it did provide some great “theatrics” for some uninformed people, politicians, athletes, and performers.

The good people of Chicago are now all fired up about canning their mayor, former White House Chief of Staff and good Obama friend Rahm Emanuel for how he is ruining their great city or not…who knows what Chicago politicians are up to these days, maybe someone should ask Oprah or even Bill Ayers or Bernardine Dohrn who were leaders in the violent and extremist Weather Underground group in the sixties. Obama said that his political career was born in Ayers and Dohrn’s Chicago living room and he attended Reverend Wright’s Chicago church with Oprah.

The president's push to reform America’s much-needed healthcare industry and to control health care costs has only managed to punish patients and healthcare providers while enriching huge insurance companies.

Obama made some talking point promises to Americans that couldn’t possibly come to pass with how the Affordable Care Act was written, even though he emphasized each point with a PERIOD?

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Jonathan Gruber, the administration and Democratic legislators, architect of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) who stated in a recorded conference that the administration had to count on the "stupidity of the American voter to get the act to pass." 

People are still dangerously obtaining routine health care services in Emergency Medicine Departments everywhere because they can’t be turned away. And many working people still can’t afford to purchase health care insurance. Because of that, our government is taking a fine from those people through the Internal Revenue Service so that revenue can be turned over to the health insurance companies who are providing insurance coverage to those who can’t or don’t work…but it is still not enough because of the apparent failure of so many “non-profit” health insurance exchanges.

The Obama administration, including the Clinton, State Department lied to Americans and the families of the people who were killed at the Benghazi Embassy attack. The initial talking point was that protesters angry over an obscure video, not terrorists caused the attack until public outrage of a blatant lie changed the Obama narrative. Then the liberal media tried to provide cover for the administration's lies with nonsense about the “Fog of War.” Also, liberals and some Democrats were accusing the Republicans of being mean to their heroine Clinton in Congressional hearings for trying to find out what really happened. 

In my required high school civics class, I was taught that our Congress is supposed to provide oversight of government activities, what happened in the last 50 years?

Then there was the Rose Garden celebration announcing the rescue of a “heroic soldier” lost in Afghanistan and held captive by the Taliban for 5 years. In the speech, Obama failed to mention anything about the swapping of five high-profile Guantanamo war prisoners for one US Army “alleged deserter." From the looks of things, Sergeant Bergdahl's (promoted during his stay with the Taliban) Court Martial won’t be concluded until Obama is out of office.

Obama’s “optics” was also way out of focus when he expressed his outrage and “heartfelt” feelings for the family of the beheaded journalist by ISIS at an impromptu news conference, then moments later teeing off at a Martha’s Vineyard golf course.

Ignoring and hiding from bullies (extremist) or trying to become friends with them (Iran) will not make them go away...it will only encourage them to continue their effort to rule over the weak everywhere. Perhaps Obama should take a cue from Teddy Roosevelt when he said, “speak softly, but carry a big stick.” 

Hint: Keeping a Carrier Air Wing and support ships parked in the ocean near troubled spots in the world gives great backing and strength to our diplomatic missions.

Our lazy or biased media in collaborating with any political ideology by allowing an ongoing false narrative to push the favored message of the day is dangerous for freedom loving people everywhere. 

Sometimes the growing malignancy of dishonest journalism is exposed on social media, which really ticks off those "established" J-school scholars.

Yes, Obama does have several serious challenges in his final year in office… but they are of his own making.

OK…I lied about the clichés, but only because we managed to elect a political cliché into office rather than a fresh and enthusiastic young person who offered “hope and change.”