Time to Think

A Taxing Week By Hank Silverberg A few years back while doing a story on the financial stability of a local hospital, I was reading through the facility's annual report.   It kept referring to “negative patient outcome,” and it took me a few minutes to realize they were talking about the death rate among patients. Over the years, while covering numerous county boards and city councils, I often heard politicians talk about the need for more “revenue enhancements,” and it was clear that "revenue enhancements" was a code word for taxes.   So, I begin this week’s blog with an old saying slightly modified. There is nothing certain in life except negative patient outcome and revenue enhancements. It’s been a taxing week. I had to write a fairly large check to the U.S. Treasury to meet the April 15 th income tax deadline, and like millions of Americans, I am not happy about it.  Don’t get me wrong. I fully believe that each citizen should pay their fair share of...

Wordless By Hank Silverberg What am I going to write about this week ? I usually ask myself that question on Wednesday or Thursday. This week I came up empty. I could spend a few paragraphs talking about the Education Secretary Betsy Devos and her idiotic attempt to cut funding for the Special Olympics in the 2020 budget. But that was too much even for the cold-hearted man in the White House, who bowed to political pressure and public outrage, and over-ruled her. The fact missed by a lot of people is that the Trump administration had tried to sneak the same cuts through last year, and was stopped by its own party.  I could also write this week about the whole Jussie Smollett case and how the media dropped the ball on that story.   Most journalists were not skeptical enough about it from the start by at least using the words “alleged” in their reporting. The end result is the media looked pretty bad when the crime turned out to be a hoax, and then the pro...

The War of the Words  By Hank Silverberg   I had a chance this past weekend to catch the 1953 production of “The War of the Worlds” on cable TV. The special effects are a bit primitive by today’s standards, but the plot and the acting is much better than the 2005 remake. If you don’t know the story , it’s based on H. G. Wells' novel which sent people all over the country looking for Martians when Orson Wells dramatized it on the radio in 1938.       In the 1953 movie the Martians choose the Los Angeles suburbs to land first, instead of New Jersey, and despite the efforts of the military and Dr. Clayton Forester (the late Gene Barry), they start destroying the world. (watch the trailer here)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8a9uTJAoL0&feature=youtu.be All is lost until the Martians, exposed to our atmosphere, die from common bacteria to which we are immune, but they are not. The world is saved with the 1950’s twist that it was s...

So, You Want To Be President? By Hank Silverberg There are now 16 Democrats who want to be President. I could run off a list for you, but that would chase you to that ‘X’ in the upper right- hand corner of your computer screen very quickly, and it may be out of date before this week is over. Instead, I want to share some advice with all those candidates.   No, I have never run a presidential campaign. I’ve covered them, mostly as a local reporter and not as national reporter, the so-called “boys on the bus.” But these days I am more important: I’m a very engaged voter.  Here is what I would like from the candidates:  First suggestion: Don’t try to be someone you are not. Be yourself. You can not be all things to all people.  “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.’” A. Lincoln, Sept 2, 1858 Lincoln knew that, though he violated it so many times that ...

The U.S. Constitution is Alive   By Hank Silverberg On March 4 th , 1789, after more than two years of debate and drafts, dozens of published Federalist Papers, months of political maneuvering by people named Washington, Hamilton, Madison and Jay, and separate ratification votes in all 13 states, The Constitution of the United States became our guiding document. It established the rules for governing our country and how to change those rules when necessary.  That was (Artist rendition of the Sep 17, 1787 signing  of the U.S. Constitution)  230 years ago as of last week. It would be two more years (1791) before the  individual liberty of everyone who lives in the U.S. would be  secured with  ten constitutional amendments that we now know as The Bill of  Rights. George Mason’s addition was shortened a bit before it was passed, but it’s a masterpiece that has provided us with freedom for more than two centuries.     ...