EFTA01187655.pdf

From: Gregory Brown To: undisclosed-recipients:; Bee: [email protected] Subject: Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.... 02/23/2014 Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2014 08:42:18 +0000 Attachments: The Case for_a Higher_Minimum_Wage_Editorial_Board_NYT_02.08.2014.docx; Ro re ErearcetT images.docx; GIL SCOTT_bio.docx; New Signup_Numbers_Show_Why: Obamacare_May_Beimpossible_To_Repeal_Forbes_ 02.11.2014.docx; Michael_Dunn_Verdict,_Florida_Man_Found_Guilty_Of_Attempted_Murder_In_Loud- Music_Trial_Derek_Kinner_Huff Post 02_16 2014.docx; The Crushingly_Expensive Mistike_Zilling_Vour_Retirement_Matthew_O'Brien_The_Atl antic_02_17_2014.docx; Unemployment_The_Number_l_Problem_For_Americans- Branden Goyette_Huff_Post_02_18_2014.docx; Facebooi_To_Buy_WhatsApp_For_$19_Billion_Dino_Grandoni_Huff_Post_02_20_2014.d OCX Inline-Images: image.png; image(1).png; image(2).png; image(3).png; image(4).png; image(5).png; image(6).png; image(7).png; image(8).png; image(9).png; image(10).png; image(11).png; image(12).png; image(13).png; image(14).png; image(15).png; image(16).png; image(17).png; image(18).png; image(19).png DEAR FRIEND Rornare Howard Bearden was born on September 2, 1911, to (Richard) Howard and Bessye Bearden in Charlotte, North Carolina, and died in New York City on March 12, 1988, at the age of 76. EFTA01187655  Romare Bearden is considered one of the most important American artists of the loth century. His life and art are marked by exceptional talent, encompassing a broad range of intellectual and scholarly interests, including music, performing arts, history, literature and world art. His early paintings were realistic with religious themes. Later, his works depict aspects of family culture in a semi-abstract collage and Cubist style. He was also a songwriter and designed sets for the Alvin Ailey Company. Bearden was also a celebrated humanist, as demonstrated by his lifelong support of young, emerging artists. The Lamp. c. 1984 Lithograph commissioned commemorating the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Presage, c. 1942 Gouache with Supreme Courts decision inks and graphite on brown Southern Recall. c. 1965 Collage of various papers with ink and ending official segregation in paper 48 x 32. graphite on cardboard 7 7/8 x 4 1/2. public education Romare BeardenRomare Bearden began college at Lincoln University, transferred to Boston University and completed his studies at New York University (NYU), graduating with a degree in education. While at NYU, Bearden took extensive courses in art and was a lead cartoonist and then art editor for the monthly journal The Medley. He had also been art director of Beanpot, the student humor magazine of Boston University. Bearden published many journal covers during his university years and the first of numerous texts he would write on social and artistic issues. He also attended the Art Students League in New York and later, the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1935, Bearden became a weekly editorial cartoonist for the Baltimore Afro-American, which he continued doing until 1937. After joining the Harlem Artists Guild, Bearden embarked on his lifelong study of art, gathering inspiration from Western masters ranging from Duccio, Giotto and de Hooch to Cezanne, Picasso and Matisse, as well as from African art (particularly sculpture, masks and textiles), Byzantine mosaics, Japanese prints and Chinese landscape paintings. From the mid-193os through 1960s, Bearden was a social worker with the New York City Department of Social Services, working on his art at night and on weekends. His success as an artist was recognized with his first solo exhibition in Harlem in 1940 and his first solo show in Washington, DC, in 1944. Bearden was a prolific artist whose works were exhibited during his lifetime throughout the United States and Europe. His collages, watercolors, oils, photomontages and prints are imbued with visual metaphors from his past in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Harlem and from a variety of historical, literary and musical sources. EFTA01187656 In 1954, Bearden married Nanette Rohan, with whom he spent the rest of his life. In the early 197os, he and Nanette established a second residence on the Caribbean island of St. Martin, his wife's ancestral home, and some of his later work reflected the island's lush landscapes. Among his many friends, Bearden had close associations with such distinguished artists, intellectuals and musicians as James Baldwin, Stuart Davis, Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, Joan Miro, George Grosz, Alvin Ailey and Jacob Lawrence. Bearden was also a respected writer and an eloquent spokesman on artistic and social issues of the day. Active in many arts organizations, in 1964 Bearden was appointed the first art director of the newly established Harlem Cultural Council, a prominent African-American advocacy group. He was involved in founding several important art venues, such as The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Cinque Gallery. Initially funded by the Ford Foundation, Bearden and the artists Norman Lewis and Ernest Crichlow established Cinque to support younger minority artists. Bearden was also one of the founding members of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters in 1970 and was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1972. Romare Bearden recognized as one of the most creative and original visual artists of the twentieth century, Romare Bearden had a prolific and distinguished career. He experimented with many different mediums and artistic styles, but is best known for his richly textured collages, two of which appeared on the covers of Fortune and Time magazines, in 1968. An innovative artist with diverse interests, Bearden also designed costumes and sets for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and programs, sets and designs for Nanette Bearden's Contemporary Dance Theatre. Among Bearden's numerous publications are: A History of African American Artists: From 1792 to the Present, which was coauthored with Harry Henderson and published posthumously in 1993; The Caribbean Poetry of Derek Walcott and the Art of Romare Bearden (1983); Six Black Masters of American Art, coauthored with Harry Henderson (1972); The Painter's Mind: A Study of the Relations of Structure and Space in Painting, coauthored with Carl Holty (1969); and Li'l Dan, the Drummer Boy: A Civil War Story, a children's book published posthumously in September 2003. Bearden's work is included in many important public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Studio Museum in Harlem, among others. He has had retrospectives at the Mint Museum of Art (1980), the Detroit Institute of the Arts (1986), as well as numerous posthumous retrospectives, including The Studio Museum in Harlem (1991) and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (2003). Bearden was the recipient of many awards and honors throughout his lifetime. Honorary doctorates were given by Pratt Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Davidson College and Atlanta University, to name but a few. He received the Mayor's Award of Honor for Art and Culture in New York City in 1984 and the National Medal of Arts, presented by President Ronald Reagan, in 1987. EFTA01187657  The Four Tenets of Individual Courage Jonny Bentwood: 02103/2014 Following the collapse of the airline industry over a decade ago, the trend of mass job-cutting was dominant. Southwest Airlines CEO James Parker went against this and announced that he would not cut jobs and instead initiate a profit-sharing program for employees. This stands as a prime example of an individual bucking the trend of his industry and showing up differently. This is courage. English author Samuel Johnson famously said, "Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others." It is the duality of individual-initiated and business-led courage that creates an optimal formula for progress. The courage to identify a pivot, and the freedom to be able to see that change through, is what's required to show up differently. And if you're lucky, like I am, that is exactly the culture of the company you work for. If you have that freedom, here are my recommendations to be courageous within it. Four Tenants of Individual Courage 1. Courage to Trust. Trusting the ideas of your colleagues is a crucial step. Courage is listening when the most junior person in the room raises his or her hand. Most great ideas don't just come from the executive suite but from the people who are fighting daily on the front-line to propel the company forward. When Spencer Silver at 3M invented the Post-It note in 1968, senior management were consistent in their dismissal of the idea. It wasn't until nine years later when a more senior manager began to trust Silver's conviction that he persuaded the firm to put their marketing might behind the Post-It and help make it flourish. You know the rest of this story. 2. Courage to Ask Why. Let me ask you: Why do you work the way you do? Is it because that's the way it has always been done? Have you ever asked, "Can I do it radically different and possibly better?" Do you have the support of your manager and company to allow "disruption" to be a positive word and not something to run away from? "No" is not a dirty word. "No" is the strongest and most radical statement you will ever hear in the workplace. It takes courage to stand up and say that the plan is wrong, the objectives are not going to be met and that there is a better way. I didn't understand how my firm calculated influence - sure, I understood the method, but I didn't believe the arithmetic. When I told my boss that I thought the method was misguided, he didn't tell me get on with the job I was employed to do; he encouraged me to take my idea as far as it could go. The result was recognized by Time magazine as one of the top 10 Twitter moments of 2010 and, more importantly, drastically changed our company's approach. Showing up differently isn't just the courage to ask, it's the determination to go to the ledge (or even over). EFTA01187658  3. Courage to Disagree. Alfred Sloan (president, chairman and CEO General Motors from 1923 to 1956) said, "Gentlemen, I take it that we are all in complete agreement on the decision we've just made. Then, I propose we postpone further discussion, to give ourselves time to develop disagreement - and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about." Sloan's view was that if everyone was in unanimous agreement, he would postpone decision- making to give his team opportunity to think about the advantages and disadvantages in different ways. Sloan's brilliance here wasn't just his patience, but his creation of a culture that required opposition. Now more than ever, we must expect disruption. If everyone in the room is always in agreement, you can plan on those people being disrupted. 4. Courage to Take Action. How often have you seen failure due to indecision, procrastination and lack of trying? It is easy to put off a decision but incredibly difficult to be firm and make one. Ikea's Sustainability Director wanted to encourage use of LED light bulbs. How did he make this happen? He made the decision to enforce his entire supply chain and retail outlets to only use them. His decision brought about change as only action can. Courage is the catalyst for change. American pastor Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878 - 1969) once said, "The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says that it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it." The companies that have fallen victim to Fosdick's prophecy are too vast to count. It was important to be courageous in Fosdick's day. It is critical to be courageous now. ****** Jordan Davis would have turned 19 last Sunday The black teen was killed in 2012 while sitting in a car with his friends outside a Jacksonville, Florida convenience store, listening to music. That music was too loud for Michael Dunn. Following an argument over the volume, the 45-year-old man fired his gun into the car-full of teenagers, killing Davis. Dunn told his fiancée the teens were playing "thug music." On the eve of Davis' 19th birthday, a mistrial was declared on the first-degree murder charge. The jury found Dunn guilty of attempted second-degree murder and a count of firing into an occupied car. While people struggled to make sense of the verdict, (attempted murder conviction for the living and hung jury for the unarmed EFTA01187659 teenager who was killed), millions of parents of black teenagers are questioning a society where unarmed black kids are often interpreted as threats, and worse. targets. What is bracing about these regular deaths is how easily I can slot myself into the same circumstance. Follow me in a Jeep, then follow me on foot and we might come to blows. Demand that I turn down my music, at 17, and you might well not like my response either. Does that allow a white man to lynch or shoot me? Obviously it does if you are a young black male (or a person of color of any age) in Florida and many other places in America. Since the Stand Your Ground law was passed in Florida, there has been an 8 percent increase in the homicide rate. Under Stand Your Ground laws in general, the chances that white-on-black killings will be found justified is more than ii times than that of a black-on-white shooting using the same defense. Two boys -- among others -- have been killed and their families ripped apart by gun violence. The law that is meant to protect fails them. Not only do Stand Your Ground laws institutionally legitimize racism by mostly white men carried out against mostly black men, instead of reconciliation and peace, gun violence and racial fears are allowed to win the day. Where just laws were meant to preserve the common good, unjust laws like Stand Your Ground excuse us from living out our best values. It is time to make that clear that this type of injustice will no longer be tolerated. As a result, it is clearer and clearer that in the United States African American lives are not of equal value, especially in states with "Stand Your Ground" laws where a jury was unable to reach a verdict of murder in the shooting death of unarmed, 17-year-old African American Jordan Davis by Michael Dunn, who is white and who has a carry concealed permit. The unequal value placed on different human beings, according to race, is not exactly new. American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author and editor, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote in 1903, "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line," and it is staggering how contemporary his analysis is today. So in the twenty-first century, with the addition of "Stand Your Ground" laws, is clear in the Zimmerman and Dunn cases, the "color line" has become a "shooting line." And this is my rant of the week. ****** Web Link: http://youtu.behtuiM6oxzp28 Although I was only fourteen years old and on the verge of dropping out of high school in 1963, I knew that the demolition of the magnificent Pennsylvania Station — known as New York Penn Station or just Penn Station occupying two city blocks — was beyond stupid. Inspired by Gare d'Orsay train station in Paris, itself a work of art and now a world-class museum. Penn Station was the brainchild of Alexander Cassatt, President of the nation's largest railroad and largest corporation with an operating budget only second to the Federal Government, at the turn of last century. In 1899 Cassatt (at the age of 59) was recruited out of retirement to take over the presidency of Pennsylvania Railroad after the untimely death of its president. Within the first two years of his presidency the railroad had doubled its income making him one of the most admired executives of the time. EFTA01187660 At that time, trains would stop at Jersey City and passengers would then be ferried over the Hudson River into Manhattan. Cassatt vision was to attach New York City to the mainland via underwater tunnels under the Hudson and East Rivers. The problem was that the prevailing belief was that it was not technically possible after a number of failed attempts by others due to the geologic conditions under the Hudson River as the soil was soft-silk causing a lot of concern that a tunnel in that soft material might not stay in position, especially when a typical Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train weigh seven hundred tons and the tunnels would have to withstand hundreds of them every day, building tunnels of that size to handle that level of traffic was an extraordinary undertaking because if they moved they most likely would failed. The tunnel technology was so innovative that in 1907 the PRR shipped an actual 23-foot (7.0 m) diameter section of the new East River Tunnels to the Jamestown Exposition in Norfolk, Virginia, to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the nearby founding of the colony at Jamestown. The same tube, with an inscription indicating that it had been displayed at the Exposition, was later installed under water and remains in use today. Construction was completed on the Hudson River tunnels on October 9, 1906, and on the East River tunnels March 18, 1908. Almost equal to the technical challenge was Cassatt's vision that the station should be a world-class monument to his company and New York City as an international capital. In 2002 he commission famed architect Charles McKim of the preempted architectural firm at the time, McKim, Mead & White. Alexander Cassatt died at the age of 67 prior to the completion of Pennsylvania Station. The original structure was made of pink granite and marked by an imposing, sober colonnade of Roman unfluted EFTA01187661 version of classical Greek Doric columns. The colonnades embodied the sophisticated integration of multiple functions and circulation of people and goods. McKim, Mead & White's Pennsylvania Station combined glass-and-steel train sheds and a magnificently proportioned concourse with a breathtaking monumental entrance to New York City. From the street twin carriageways, modelled after Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, led to the two railroads the building served, the Pennsylvania and the Long Island Rail Road. The main waiting room, inspired by the Roman Baths of Caracalla, approximated the scale of St. Peter's nave in Rome, expressed here in a steel framework clad in plaster that imitated the lower wall portions of travertine. 150 feet high, it was the largest indoor space in New York City and one of the largest public spaces in the world. The Baltimore Sun said in April 2007 that the station was "as grand a corporate statement in stone, glass and sculpture as one could imagine." Historian Jill Jonnes called the original edifice a "great Doric temple to transportation." Web Link: htips://www.toledoblade.com/Culture/2014/02/18/Exploring-a-marvel-of-engineering.html During half a century of operation under Pennsylvania Railroad (1910-1963) scores of intercity passenger trains arrived and departed daily to Chicago and St. Louis on "Penny" rails and beyond on connecting railroads to Miami and the west. Along with Long Island Rail Road trains Penn Station saw trains of the New Haven and the Lehigh Valley Railroads. During World War I and the early 1920s rival Baltimore and Ohio Railroad passenger trains to Washington, Chicago, and St. Louis also used Penn Station, initially by order of the United States Railroad Administration, until the Pennsylvania Railroad terminated the B&O's access in 1926. By 1945 more than 100 million passengers transited through Penn Station. The station saw its heaviest use during World War II but in 1946 Pennsylvania Railroad suffered its first operating lost in the company's history and by the late- 195os intercity rail passenger volumes had declined dramatically with the coming of the Jet Age and the Interstate Highway System causing the company to get out of passenger service. The Pennsylvania Railroad optioned the air rights of Penn Station in the 195os. The option called for the demolition of the head-house and train shed, to be replaced by an office complex and a new sports complex. The tracks of the station, perhaps fifty feet below street level, would remain untouched. Demolition began in October 1963. Plans for the new Penn Plaza and Madison Square Garden were announced in 1962. In exchange for the air-rights to Penn Station, the Pennsylvania Railroad would get a brand-new, air-conditioned, smaller station completely below street level at no cost, and a 25% stake in the new Madison Square Garden Complex. The demolition of the head house — although considered by some to be justified as progressive at a time of declining rail passenger service — created international outrage. As dismantling of the structure began, The New York Times editorially lamented, "Until thefirst blowfell, no one was convinced that Penn Station really would be demolished, or that New York would permit this monumental act of vandalism against one of the largest andfinest landmarks of its age of Roman elegance." Its destruction left a lasting wound in the architectural consciousness of the city. A famous photograph by Eddie Hausner of the ruined sculpture "Day" by Adolph Alexander Weinman in a landfill of the New Jersey Meadowlands struck a guilty chord. Pennsylvania Station's demolition is considered the catalyst for the enactment of the city's first architectural preservation statutes. The EFTA01187662 destruction of Penn Station inspired the creation of the Landmarks Preservation Movement that saved a number of historic buildings including the wonderful Grand Central Station in New York. It had taken four years to build Pennsylvania Station. McKim's colossal structure used 27.000 tons of steel, 500,000 cubic feet of granite, 83,000 square feet of skylights and 17 million bricks. When the station was completed in 1910 thousands of spectators wandered through the station, flooding the acres of its floor space reported the New York Tribune, "gazed at the vaulted ceilingsfar above them, and pressed like caged creatures against the grill that looked down upon subterranean tracks, trains and platforms." Pennsylvania Station was a symbol not only to the greatness and power of the railroad, but also to the greatness and power of the city, it was a gift to the city as well as a creation of a corporation with a notion that private enterprise and the public good didn't contradict each other — they in fact reinforced each other. More than a half of century later my first memories of Penn Station is still indelible. You walked into the majestic structure immediately realizing that this is a wonderful space, making it one of the greatest public spaces in the country whether you are rich or poor, urban, suburban or rural. One of the unintended beneficial consequences of Penn Station was the opening up of access for the suburbs to the city. At the time that Penn Station was built, most Americans viewed railroads as symbols of progress, symbols of what the United States could achieve. Most people didn't realize what was lost until Penn Station was torn down. It is hard to get over the fact that such a wonderful place is gone. Often described as the "great martyr of historic preservation", the building that died so that we could/would save others in the future. I "I) 10: z ...tie ^SP ''• \- Inl‘ — -__ __,..", - 0.--,1.1_3011latlin ei. 1Ar. Alaiinst1 ,„;,.: • -- - . • a• On -S a, -rot . ci 1 A A -- sv ... . 0 ig i,... — ---,, -...c.: -442.0.--Cade. c •. els.- t• -.400, _ 4- - * 1---- • i: r . iral am lI ia ''♦1011/4 W 110 ---ii0.‘0-41 9. VA-4:. ---- "\h—ila . 10 11:7; i: ,b.., Va __it „ . --6 - -;;;k 0 7•-•.-:Fes tz tt-TC .,-T, AN. .,, . % i klii.5 :; ..- >bia,..,1 -3- ,-;,.......- = •. 1= --- ;;-:::..,„ NW. _•%* ..,2_2,v .....e. \ X \ca n t% \ \ ...- —• _ --‘ itt iv ‘ • — 4. itiornts) ist;iti-„....... . . --- ,. .• ,4.... . ..1: .,.._Illii -41 -1 vit en ,_% vir ii• -r . _ ..o.. d.•do•9 1•. .... ..: • ....-. - IMAM ... wa r 4 ,::: ?„" ‘ 111 'i • wit en illinSil.t,Zst: •;,',,,-.5ii V er ' 1,e• II Illilliki:. . ..P.. Ar • . " •', WAS I I ) Alai It wil I s" M trill --A IEN1 idi igi ill Ma lH IIN NODS ;','" , a "d wall 06=1'4;42'4 r - c'-‘i ATT I EFTA01187663 The destruction of Penn Station was the tipping point, something that people wouldn't accept any more creating the political will to stop the destruction of historic buildings. In today's money driven ethos this is always an uphill battle with the power of commerce, the devotion to change, the fetish of what's coming next is antithetical to doing something monumental and noble and for private enterprise creating something extraordinary for the benefit of the public, that generations who followed would also benefit from. Obviously the challenge is how to balance the need to preserve what's best, what's most important and the need to continually change, invent and grow, because this is what living places have to do. If you get a chance, as part of its American Experience series, PBS is currently showing a wonderful documentary. The Rise and Fall of Penn Station' -- I strongly urge everyone to see it. ****** Web Link: http://vimeo.corn/86706722 The one thing that a majority of Americans believe, whether they be Democrat, Republican or Independent, is that campaign financing needs to be reform due to the stench of corruption hinging over American politics today. In addition to the speculation that New Jersey's Chris Christie office pressured local politicians in Jersey City to approve a real estate development, Ray Nagin's New Orleans, where the former mayor has been convicted for taking bribes and kickbacks and in our nation's capital, the revolving door whirls like a runaway carousel, delivering one member of Congress or top staffer after another into the waiting arms of corporate mercenaries offering top dollar for services rendered; never mind the conflicts of interest. And all the while gushers of money pour into political campaigns non-stop, producing a marionette government of legalized theft. You would think all this sleaze would be enough to turn everyone off. And it has indeed provoked dangerously widespread cynicism and apathy. More than ever in America political campaigns run on dollars, corrupting the tenents of democracy and leaving the middle class and especially poor people at the mercy of a rigged system. It is easy to see the effect of money in politics; as most of the time the EFTA01187664 system works only for those who pay to play, who have bought the rule-making machinery of government. The most amazing thing is that you can buy so many politicians on the cheap. Since the days of the Greek and Roman Empires, money has been the elixir to curry favors and favorable legislation but since the Supreme Court walked away from any sort of responsibility to protect democracy, capital has increasingly gain control of our politics leading to a government no longer believing its responsibility is for the greater good for the mass and to protect those in need. Last week on PBS' Moyers & Company, Bill Moyers spoke with David Simon, the former crime reporter turned television producer. He created two acclaimed series for HBO: "Theme," about the struggle to rebuild post-Katrina New Orleans, and "The Wire," the story of crime and punishment in the streets of Baltimore. David Simon: The last job of capitalism - having won all the battles against labor, having acquired the ultimate authority, almost the ultimate moral authority over what's a good idea or what's not, or what's valued and what's not — the last journey for capital in my country has been to buy the electoral process, the one venue for reform that remained [...] And ultimately, right now, capital has effectively purchased the government. Simon Again: I think if I could fix one thing, if I could concentrate and focus on one thing and hope that by breaking the cycle you might start to walk this nightmare back, it would be campaign finance reform. The logic of Citizens United and other decisions that are framed around that. Certainly our judicial branch has failed to value the idea of one man, one vote. You don't count more because you run a corporation and you can heave money in favor of your political philosophy onto the process. You don't count more, you're one guy. When asked about the Citizens United decision, I was surprised at Simon's response. David Simon: Everyone reacted the wrong way when they heard that decision. They all-- the chant from the left became, "Corporations are people? Corporations are not people." Well, no, actually under the law, that's the reason for corporations if you know, they are indeed given the rights of individuals, and that's why you form corporations and that's how the law treats them. They're sociopaths as people, you know, they have to report their profit to the-- I mean, that's who they are. But you know, by definition, you know, if all you care about is your profits, to the shareholders, you know, and nothing else in human terms, you're probably a sociopath. But okay, they get to exist as-- no, it was that speech is money that was-- when you start equating speech with money and you see them as being comparable, money is in a fundamental regard the opposite of speech in many ways. Speech, you know, or it's a kind of speech so foul that it shouldn't be- - it shouldn't have the weight it has in our democracy. And that's the, that to me was the nails in the coffin. If you can't fix the elections so that they actually resemble the popular will, if the combination of the monetization of the elections and gerrymandering create a bicameral legislature that doesn't in any way reflect the will of the American people, you've reached the end game for democracy. And I think we have. David Simon: Capitalism is a tool for building wealth. But if wealth is the only measure of society and there's no distinction on how that wealth is going to be distributed among the various classes or how EFTA01187665 that wealth is going to be put to the needs of the society or how the society's going to be protected from inevitable threat, if all of those things are not -- if how the society's infrastructure, shared infrastructure, is fashioned and whether or not it's sustainable, if all those things are not metrics and if it's just about generating mass wealth, then you know, what are we saying? What are we saying about the human condition? What are saying about our society's condition? And the only way that you tame greed is legislatively. And the problem is that we don't have a Teddy Roosevelt today. Today you can't look at politics and be sanguine about where we're going. And as a result you have to understand why so many people's anger has turns to resignation. Resignation or contempt for government as an idea. That's a luxury we don't have. It is basically either, on one side it's people who think, "I can do well on my own and screw my neighbor." And it's basically greed wrapping itself in the mantle of a legitimate ideology. Or it's just people who are not doing well, who are saying, you know, "The government's my enemy." If democracy's going to work, the government in some sense is you and your neighbors. And if it's not, that's the fight to have. And this fight can't be had by walking away. Because, if only 20 percent of the people in America end up voting in elections that they don't think matter, you lose and they'll be right, with any sense of democracy dying. Therefore in any democracy, it's a fight worth having even if we're going to lose. Even when you believe that the game is rigged. Sooner or later even the most apathetic will seethe with contempt that their voice isn't being heard. Today the logical outcome can witnessed in the uprising in the Ukraine. And although revolution sometimes seems good in theory — but the destruction, pain and death that accompanies it is not. Therefore opting out is not only a lost opportunity but it often leads to unintended consequences creating the worse of all outcomes. David Simon: In "The Myth of Sisyphus" Camus' idea is that to commit to an unlikely cause or a cause that is, seems, almost certain of defeat may seem absurd, but to not commit is also absurd given the situation. And only one choice of those two offers even the remote chance at dignity. But more than that, the idea that democracy works without there being a constant fight, is equally absurd — as such, it is negligent for us to walk away and say I'm not going to play this game by which I might lose or which the odds are stacked against me, and want the lofty position of walking away and saying, "No more." Because all that will happen is a more rapid decline in our society. As such there is nowhere to go except to fight. Being a Baby Boomer who grew up in the age of television when there were only three networks and that was only in the major markets, one of the shared experiences in America, whether you were rich, poor, black, white, woman, man, gay, young and old, was television. Those shared experiences were often painted in the collective psyche of the American audience. For Baby Boomers and their parents, many of us remember watching Elvis Presley and The Beetles on the Ed Sullivan Show and during that same time we anointed Walter Cronkite "the most trusted man in America." We crowded around our television sets to witness the landing on the moon in 1969, and we were collectively outraged by the over-reaction of local police during the social protests in the 196os. Along with Dragnet, American Bandstand, Bonanza, The Honeymooners and scores of other television shows, one EFTA01187666 of the preempted collective American television experiences was the late night television show, and most of all, NBC's The Tonight Show, which is still the longest running talk show having first aired in 1954. The Tonight Show has been hosted by Steve Allen (1954-57), Jack Paar (1957-62), Johnny Carson (1962-92), Jay Leno (1992-2009), Conan O'Brien (2009-10), and Jay Leno again (2010-14). After hosting The Tonight Show for twenty years, Joe Leno did his last show two weeks ago to make room for a younger Jimmy Fallon who moved the show after thirty years in Los Angeles back to its original studio in New York City. The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon premiered on Monday night, February 17, 2014. Having lived longer than most people expected and in fear of being put out to pasture or worse irrelevant, I often find myself nostalgic for the past and as a result glued to the final months of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. What is funny, is that prior to this period, if I watched The Tonight Show more than two or three times a month the show's Neilson rating had a banner week. Like a future ex-wife who wanted to see the new wife, I recorded the new Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, so that I could view it later at my convenience. And to my surprise, I found it to be thoroughly entertaining, especially since I had never seen his previous show Late Night with Jimmy Fallon or remembered him from Saturday Night Live, which I stopped watching since the original cast left in the last 8os and early 9os. Without a doubt, Johnny Carson set the Gold Standard. There are not enough superlatives to describe his brilliance. And Johnny Carson being #1 for thirty years and leaving on top, it has been amazing how easily Jay Leno transitioned into his chair and established his own stamp on the show. Having watched the disaster of Conan O'Brien crashing and burning when he moved from the Late Night to The Tonight Show five years ago, I was also curious to see if the same would happen to Fallon. In my humble opinion, Jimmy Fallon's first week has been stellar. And my favorite segment this week was his History of Rap Part 5 parody with Justin Timberlake. I invite you to use the web link below and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did. History of Rap 5 — Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake Web Link: http://youtu.be/ONOOrArJRR4 Jimmy Fallon thanks to a successful five-year run as the host of Late Night, a proven record of creating deliciously viral content which spreads like wildfire across social media, became NBC's hope — "A Tonight Show Host Who Speaks YouTube" to appeal to a younger audience, convincing them to sit down in front of the TV at a specific time (an increasing rarity), while simultaneously engaging them with social media and active digital content. Maybe learning from his Conan O'Brien experience, Jay Leno saw himself out after over twenty years as The Tonight Show's host with humility, class and good well to his successor. His final Tonight Show episode and Fallon's first have a lot in common: a constant flow of superstar guests, high-caliber musical performances and sincere, emotional monologues from the respective hosts. Both are always eager to please, with the niceness of an everyman. But the biggest difference is that the new show seems to be less about the desk and the interviews and more of a sketch-based variety musical hour given to the whims of improv. Hence EFTA01187667 Fallon is already putting his stamp on the Grand Daddy of Late Night Shows -- The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. WEEK's READINGS The Case for a Higher Minimum Wage THE EDITORIAL BOARD: February 8, 2014 The political posturing over raising the minimum wage sometimes obscures the huge and growing number of low wage workers it would affect. An estimated 27.8 million people what are more money under the Democratic proposal to lift the hourly minimum wage from $7.25 today to $10.10 by 2016. And most of them do not fit the low-wage stereotype of a teenager with a summer job. Their average age is 35; more than one-fourth are parents; and, on average, they are on half of their families' total income. None of that, however, has softened the hearts of opponents, including congressional Republicans and low-wage employers, notably restaurant owners and executives. This is not a new debate. The minimum wage is a battlefield in a larger political fight between Democrats and Republicans - dating back to the New Deal legislation been instituted the first minimum wage in 1938 - over government's role in the economy, over raw versus regulated capitalism, over corporate power versus public needs. 2016: $20 2013: 61119p 518.30 $18 At thit growthraft oft $16 U.S. productivity $14 U.S. average wages 512 $10.63 S10.89, 1968: of production, non- $9.40 supervisory $10 58 • $9.61 (under 56 Real minimum wage 57.25 Haddn- MllNri $4 52 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 But the results of the way to bait are clear. Decades of research, facts and evidence shows that increasing the minimum wage is vital to economic security of tens of millions of Americans, when would be good for the weak economy. As Congress begins its own debate, here are answers to some basic questions about the need for an increase. EFTA01187668 WHAT'S THE POINT OF THE MINIMUM WAGE? Most people think of the minimum wage as the lowest legal hourly pay. That's true, but it is really much more than that. As defined in the name of the Lord that established it - Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 - the minimum wage is a fundamental labor standard designed to protect workers, just as child labor laws and overtime pay rules do. Labor standards, like environmental standards and investor protections, are essential to a functional economy. Properly set an enforced, these standards check exploitation, pollution and speculation. In the process, they promote broad and rising prosperity, as well as public confidence. The minimum wage is specifically intended to take aim at inherent imbalance in power between employers and low-wage workers that can push wages down to poverty levels. An appropriate way to floor set by Congress affectively substitutes for bargaining power the low-wage workers lack. When low-end wages rise, poverty and inequality are reduced. But that doesn't mean the minimum wage is a government pro