The Eisenthal Report

Random Thoughts

1. This post is an experiment - my first from my mobile phone - we'll see how this works. 2. The state-by-state presidential polls have been all over the place. A week ago, Barack Obama had a lead of 57 electoral votes with 67 tossup votes. A few days ago, John McCain had taken a lead of as much as 25 electoral votes. Now, that lead is 10 electoral votes in McCain's favor with 96 tossup votes. What is also interesting is that McCain's lead has narrowed significantly in Nevada, Missouri, and Indiana. If Obama were to get the 216 he has now solidly plus the 96 tossups plus Nevada, Missouri, and Indiana, he would have nearly 340 electoral votes - a substantial victory. While it's still likely that the electoral college will be close, one can see the makings of a comfortable electoral college victory for either candidate - though more likely for Obama. 3. Even though momentum seems to be moving Obama's way again, there's still a lot of action ahead. I still worry that "Obama" is the Luo word for "Dukakis." 4. We had a primary here in Massachusetts yesterday - with very low turnout - including here in West Brookfield. Just how low was the turnout? Fewer people voted yesterday in West Brookfield - Democrat and Republican - than voted for me at the Town election in May.

What a week!

This has been quite a week - in this country's politics and for me, personally.

Sen. Barack Obama officially became the Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party - the first African-American to win this in history. The vote making Obama the nominee - and Obama's speech accepting the nomination - occurred on historic anniversaries.

The Democratic National Convention voted the nomination of Sen. Obama on Wednesday, August 27, which was the centennial of the birth of President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Given President Johnson's role in promoting civil rights in the 1960s, there is much poetic justice in this conjunction of the two events.

As many observers have noted, yesterday was the 45th anniversary of the March on Washington, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I have a Dream" speech. Again, the confluence of Dr. King's speech and Sen. Obama's seems to this observer to be quite auspicious.

For me personally, I helped build a playground this past Sunday - and got to comment on this on television.

This was before I got very sore and sunburned.

I was also quite active in West Brookfield affairs. Replacement of a key bridge in West Brookfield got attention in both the Worcester Telegram and Gazette and the Spencer New Leader. My colleagues and I on the Board of Selectmen expressed our concerns about the apparent refusal of CSX, which owns the rail that runs under the bridge, to allow a grade-level crossing adjacent to the bridge. Without this nearby detour, while the bridge is closed for as much as two months, traffic would be detoured 7 to 9 miles through the neighboring towns of Brookfield and Warren - a prospect that poses safety, economic, and quality of life issues for the residents of West Brookfield.

My colleagues and I also expressed our concerns about the count of West Brookfield students attending the Quaboag Regional School District. The residency of 45 students, previously identified as West Brookfield residents, has been called into question. This is a matter that needs to be resolved before the official school census is done on October 1.

Items that haven't yet been covered in the newspaper include our efforts to expand long-range financial forecasting for the Town of West Brookfield - and the effects of a decision by the state Department of Revenue not to allow the Town to maintain a "fleet account." This is an account into which the Town Meeting appropriates funds for the purpose of acquiring vehicles and other rolling stock for Town departments. The Board of Selectmen and the Advisory Committee have been making decisions on specific vehicle purchases.

I have felt that this approach circumvents the legislative process. Town Meeting is the legislative body in West Brookfield - and should be the body that decides major capital purchases. However, I am not happy about the way in which this change was made. I had hoped that a more comprehensive capital planning process would be in place before anything was done to the "fleet account."

Finally, I had the opportunity to attend the annual meeting of the Lake Wickaboag Preservation Association - and to speak to the meeting. Lake Wickaboag is a "great pond" of about 400 acres located in the center of West Brookfield. It really is one of the gems of our area. I grew up in a community that has a similar lake - I'm happy to support efforts to maintain Lake Wickaboag.

Hiatus

With my election earlier this week to the West Brookfield Board of Selectmen, I am thinking carefully about my priorities. While I do that, I have decided to put The Eisenthal Report on hiatus. I have not decided how - or in what form - The Eisenthal Report will continue. I know that I need to keep writing in some form - for all kinds of reasons. I expect to make long-term decisions regarding TER before the end of June. I expect to announce my plans regarding TER by July 1.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

On this terrible anniversary - the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., I can do no better than to point back to a TER piece from about fifteen months ago - on the occasion of the Martin Luther King holiday in 2007.

In that piece, I wrote that

As a society, we are still sorting out his legacy - and his work is far from finished. However, if we survive as a coherent society in the coming decades and centuries - if we avoid the fate of other ethnically diverse societies such as Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia, and Rwanda - it will be in no small measure because of the work and the example of Dr. King.

An Important Personal Anniversary

Today is an important anniversary for me.

Twenty-four years ago today - April 2, 1984 - I was elected to the School Committee in Sharon, Massachusetts. I had turned 22 the previous November - and so was the youngest elected official in the history of the Town of Sharon to that time.

I was elected to a one-year term to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of a member of the School Committee. One year later, I was elected to a three-year term of my own. I served two years of that term. I resigned from the School Committee in the spring of 1987 at the age of 25. I had gotten married the previous summer - and my wife and I decided to move away from Sharon.

My three years on the Sharon School Committee was the beginning of a career that has focused on city and town government. In 1986, I went to work for the Massachusetts Division of Local Services, where I provided technical assistance on financial matters to Massachusetts cities and towns. Three years later, I started with Shawmut Bank, where I began working as a financial advisor to cities and towns on borrowing issues. I have been in that line of work ever since.

With the experience and knowledge that I've gained over the past 24 years, I am ready - if I am elected to the West Brookfield Board of Selectmen on May 6 - to start working immediately for the people of West Brookfield. I would come into office with ideas and a vision for West Brookfield's town government. I believe that I would combine fresh ideas, strength of principle, and an ability to forge good working relationships in a way that would make me an effective Selectman from day one.

This year's town election is an important one for West Brookfield. For the first time in five years, West Brookfield will be electing a new Selectman. This is happening at a time when we face possibly the worst recession since World War II. Indeed, West Brookfield is beginning to face the financial pressures that other Massachusetts communities have been facing. With my local government finance background, I believe that I am the strongest candidate for Selectman in this environment.

And so I ask the people of West Brookfield for their votes on May 6.

The Eisenthal Report @ 3

Today is the third anniversary of The Eisenthal Report.

Over the past three years, TER has had 926 posts and almost 55,000 visits. This means that I've averaged about six posts - and more than 500 visits - per week - not bad for a blog that is, as a fellow blogger put it, "a one-man effort to provide thoughtful commentary while holding down a day job."

TER is definitely in the blogosphere's tail - TER's Technorati "authority" is 33, which places it in the top 250,000 among blogs. While TER has not had the high impact of some more prominent blogs, I feel that I've contributed to the regional and national - and even international - conversations on a number of political and cultural issues. And I've had fun doing it.

I look forward to another year of TER.

Return of the Sun

A few hours ago, something happened in Barrow, Alaska for the first time in several weeks - the Sun rose.

At 1:12 PM Alaska Standard Time (some four and a half hours ago at this writing), the Sun rose on Barrow, which is the northernmost settlement on the North American continent at 71.3 degrees north - well above the Arctic Circle. The Sun last set on Barrow a little before 1:30 PM on November 19.

Daylight did not last long today in Barrow; the Sun set at 2:07 PM AST.

The flip side of the winter darkness is, of course, the summer light - as anyone who has seen Insomnia can attest. In Barrow, the Sun will rise on May 10 at 2:47 AM Alaska Daylight Time - and will not set again until 1:54 AM ADT on August 2.

(Here is the source for the the times and dates.)

Anniversary of a Strange Case

21 years ago today, one of the most bizarre events in recent American history unfolded in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania - the televised suicide of Pennsylvania state Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer.

Last year, TER offered an extended commentary in advance of the 20th anniversary of this horrific event. As it happens, this commentary is one of the most visited single pieces on this site - thousands of visits to this one piece since last year.

The Kidney Has Landed

Early this month, TER discussed the importance of organ donation - something that had great personal importance for this observer; my wife was about to receive a new kidney in a transplant from a live donor - her first cousin.

She has now had her transplant - late last week at a hospital in Boston. She has already been home from the hospital for a few days. While she is healing from the surgery - and still learning her medication regimen - she is doing well; the operation was a success. Her cousin is also doing well. Words fail me in describing the gratitude that I - and all who know my wife - feel for her cousin's selfless act.

It seems to me that this process has illustrated much of the best of humanity. I've already touched on my wife's cousin's generous act, but the generosity extends beyond him - to family and friends - many of whom have interrupted their routines to provide my wife, my children, and me critical assistance at this challenging time.

Ties of family and friendship have been strengthened - both in the present and, I believe, for the future. Blood and tissue link the members of my wife's family as never before, but all those of who have participated with us in this process are linked much more than before by what Abraham Lincoln called the "mystic chords of memory." It is these "chords" that give life much of its meaning. It is also significant that - both within our families and among our friends - these "chords" cross ethnic and racial divides.

The best of humanity is also illustrated by technological miracles that make transplants increasingly routine and by the sheer competence of the professionals who cared for my wife and her cousin. I am grateful to live in an age when such miracles are routine and such competence is fostered.

Generosity of spirit, closer human ties, routine miracles and competence - all good.

The Importance of Organ Donation

The Eisenthal Report urges readers to strongly consider organ donation - both living and post-mortem.

This has recently become a personal issue. My wife will shortly be receiving a new kidney in a transplant from a living donor - a family member. We are very grateful both for the donor's generosity - and for the medical technology that will allow my wife to live a longer and healthier life.

Organs that can be given by living donors include the kidney and portions of the liver, lung, intestine, and pancreas. Kidney transplants are the most common; they have now been done for more than 50 years. The first one was done in 1954 in Boston at what is now Brigham and Women's Hospital.

The care for living organ donors - before after after the transplant - is top-rate. The screening that is done for living donors can, in fact, detect other problems that can be caught earlier than they might be otherwise. And, if the living donor's remaining organ declines in function, that donor moves to the top of the transplant registry list.

In addition to considering living donation, we should all strongly consider donation after death. We should consider the question - does it make sense to bury or burn perfectly good corneas, heart valves, or tendons? This link has more information on how to become a donor.