Serving with the Greatest Generation

Posted on June 7, 2024 by Jim

I couldn’t help watching the TV coverage of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. It’s a moving and pivotal episode in our history and a reminder of values that often are forgotten today. 

I got acquainted with the Greatest Generation when I joined the Navy in 1964. Most of the senior officers and noncoms in those days were World War II veterans and were approaching retirement after 20-plus years on active duty. 

My first duty station, a joint-forces headquarters in Albuquerque, was a magnet for senior officers on their twilight tours because it was a great place to retire. One of my bosses was a Navy commander who was building a lavish new house near the base. Another was an Air Force colonel who had purchased a ranch outside of town. 

Because military headquarters tend to be top-heavy, senior officers actually outnumbered their juniors. At one point I was the only Navy ensign among two admirals and several dozen captains and commanders. I was 21 years old and marveled at the age and seniority of the brass-hatted elders I encountered (including the Army colonel who became my father-in-law). The Air Force in particular had numerous officers who had been promoted to colonel in their 20s by surviving high casualty rates and stuck around for another 20 years without further advancement. Some of them were colonels before I was born. 

They rarely talked about their experiences in World War II and Korea. I wish I’d had the temerity to ask. When I told my Air Force colonel boss that the Navy was transferring me to Sasebo, Japan, his response was: “Nice town. I bombed it once.” 

After my sea duty tour, I encountered another gold-braided environment at the Great Lakes, IL, naval district headquarters. By this time I had more appreciation that those stuffy seniors were badass when they were my age. The elderly admiral who woodenly delivered the speeches I wrote for him earned a Silver Star on D-Day as a particularly daring destroyer skipper. 

In one meeting it took me a minute to notice that the captain at the other end of the table wore an unusual light-blue ribbon with gold stars. I learned later that he earned the Congressional Medal of Honor as a lieutenant in charge of a landing craft. The Navy recently named a ship for him. 

I encountered another contingent of the Greatest Generation years later. In 2012 I co-authored the biography of an Albuquerque veteran who was captured in the Philippines and spent the rest of the war in Japanese POW camps. My co-author and I attended a reunion of Bataan-Corregidor survivors in Albuquerque as part of our work on the book. I was surprised at the number of survivors who were healthy and vigorous in their 90s, suggesting that people who survived the ordeal they went through are practically indestructible.

If I gained unique insight and priceless inspiration by serving under a generation of heroes, it wasn’t evident at the time. I had some excellent mentors and encountered a few blockheads. Mostly I absorbed the example of solid citizens who didn’t brag, were team players and generally got things done. Exactly the sort of men who stormed the beach on D-Day.

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University of Intifada

Posted on May 5, 2024 by Jim

When I graduated from Northwestern University in 1964, most of my fellow students were supporting Barry Goldwater for President. Now my old school is capitulating to anti-Israel activists. The university agreed to consider divesting from Israel and subsidize more Palestinian faculty and students. 

I’m disappointed but not surprised. Antisemitism has been growing in academia for decades, starting decades ago with the Palestinian-led movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel. Critical race theory curriculum defines Jews as white oppressors, Palestinians as an oppressed minority and Israel as a colonist state. 

In addition, Middle Eastern autocracies have been donating billions of dollars to U.S. universities in recent decades. This has funded departments of Middle Eastern studies, Muslim faculty and a surge in Middle Eastern students. Northwestern already maintains a campus in Qatar (where graduates with the same journalism degree I hold may be churning out propaganda for Al Jazeera). 

Fortunately, I stopped being a loyal alum after Northwestern sent me a collection letter demanding payment on my student loan when I was serving in Vietnam. 

Some are pointing out the eerie similarity between today’s academic antisemitism and the German universities’ embrace of Nazism in the 1920s. Particularly when the emphasis of campus protests has shifted from concern for civilians in Gaza to openly calling for the destruction of Israel and threatening their Jewish classmates. Chants of “from the river to the sea” (Israel will no longer exist) have been supplemented by “Intifada” (war on non-Muslims everywhere), “Death to Israel” and occasionally “Death to the USA.” A few protest leaders are saying the quiet part out loud by claiming that “Zionists” do not deserve to live.

The sudden emergence of an anti-Israel voting block has neutered the Democratic party’s leadership, is influencing U.S. foreign policy and may cost Democrats the election. The only bright spot is that it’s more difficult for Democrats to portray Trump as Hitler when mobs of their voters are calling for the elimination of the Jewish state. 

Regardless of how this plays out politically, the radical takeover of universities is likely to force an overdue reckoning for higher education. Tuition costs have been rising dramatically as colleges have padded their bloated bureaucracies. This now affects every American because the Biden administration is forcing all taxpayers to foot the bill for student loans. So when the TV news shows a keffiyeh-clad student spouting hate slogans, every viewer has to ask: Why am I paying for this idiot?

Colleges already were under fire for racism in admissions and hiring, suppression of free speech, trans-athletic controversies, plagiarism scandals and denial of due process to students. Some employers are refusing to hire recent graduates because they are unprepared for the workforce. Because of high costs and demographic trends, fewer students are entering colleges and some schools are closing. 

Even though the Hamas wannabes represent a tiny minority of college students, their aggressive stupidity is the new face of higher education. Universities were founded to educate new generations of leaders and thinkers and their degrees were marks of distinction. We’re now learning that our most prestigious schools are producing useful idiots who are easily led, ignorant of history, unable to articulate why they’re protesting and unwilling to show their faces. And the leaders of many of those institutions are capitulating to the mob. 

We have seen campus unrest before but this time it’s different. This is not principled opposition to the Vietnam war, support for racial justice or a desire to make America better. Today’s campus protests quickly evolved from concern for the Palestinians to a degree of Jew-hatred and anti-Americanism never before seen in this country. The professional organization, terrorist sympathies and cult-like behavior of the protesters strike many Americans as sinister. The inability of so many schools to exercise adult supervision is alarming.

This raises a fundamental question: Does America need schools like Columbia, UCLA and, yes, Northwestern? Why should they receive government subsidies and tax breaks? Will any employer risk hiring their graduates? Will parents want to send their children there? Will anyone mourn if some formerly elite universities simply close?

The pushback is beginning as the 80% of Americans who favor Israel are getting involved. We’re beginning to see pro-Israel counterdemonstrations. Major donors are withdrawing their contributions from Ivy League schools. We may see lawsuits from parents whose kids have been blocked from classes and graduation ceremonies. 

Congress is getting involved. There are bills opposing antisemitism and federal funding to universities probably will be at risk. We are likely to see investigations focusing on Middle Eastern influence and the ease with which outside organizers have been able to infiltrate campuses and lead protests. 

The result is likely to be a shake-out in higher education. Universities that have kept the protests confined will survive. Some states have begun reforming their universities. But more colleges will close and major universities will see their reputations diminished. 

The challenge for our politicians is to preserve and clarify the right to peacefully protest and utter hate speech while making colleges a safe space for everyone. A bigger challenge will be to restore academic excellence to the American university system.

Germany’s example is not encouraging. Before they adopted Nazi ideology the country’s universities were among the best in the world. After World War II German universities never regained their former standing.

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My new ride is a technology trip

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Jim

Buying a new car used to be an exhilarating experience: gleaming metal, that new-car smell and the sensation of commanding a more capable machine. I’m finding it a little more complicated. My first new car in 17 years is an unfamiliar technological journey. 

I could have kept my 2007 Subaru a little longer. It was gently used and meticulously maintained. But my repair bills suggested that I was already replacing the car one part at a time. My daughter complained about the cramped rear seat during her Christmas visits and I really wanted the latest safety features. 

My 2024 Subaru Forester was delivered in November. It’s enjoyable to drive, but figuring out the controls and technology features requires a learning curve. The salesman’s hasty explanation of the car’s array of switches and buttons left me mostly confused. 

I quickly learned to start the car by pushing a button and figured out how to lock and unlock the doors by touching the door handle (so long as the magic amulet that replaced the key is in my pocket). It took longer to learn how to lock and unlock the doors from inside the car, which lacks the locking button of earlier models. After consulting the owner’s manual I used the settings menu on the touchscreen to program the doors to unlock themselves when the gearshift is in “park.” 

I get a kick out of using the power liftgate but have not tried to open the power moonroof (one of the features I would not have chosen but “came with”). 

The dials that control the heating and air conditioning are a little complicated but I’m muddling through. The dashboard gauges and information screen give me more information than I want and keep track of my gas mileage in at least three places. The safety features – backup camera, lane departure warning and blind spot detection – are easy to use and have spared me a few close calls. 

I have not yet tried out the adaptive cruise control or the traction control for mud and snow. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to slog through the owner’s manual and learn to use all these gadgets.

The infotainment system is another challenge. A touchscreen controls the radio, connects to my cell phone and controls other computerized applications. The radio is easy enough to use when it decides to turn itself on. My cell phone connects with the car wirelessly via Bluetooth, but I need to physically plug it into the dashboard to use the phone’s navigation feature and recorded music. I recently discovered that the car can receive phone calls and am not sure I like that. One of the car’s apps that’s supposed to interface with my phone is not working as described in the owner’s manual and, according to the dealer, is being withdrawn. 

What’s frustrating is that I am not your typical geriatric Luddite. I managed a large office computer system in the 1980s, started my own website in the 1990s and have embraced cell phone apps as senior moments occupy more of my waking hours. I should be able to master the technology in an ordinary Subaru. It’s not surprising to learn that touchscreen distraction is an issue for some drivers. I wonder how many new-car owners are learning just enough about their cars to drive them around and are not taking full advantage of their capabilities.

I also wonder if the high-tech gadgetry will last as long as the rest of the car. My last midlife-crisis car was a sporty 1986 Nissan with a computer voice that reminded me to close the door or turn off the headlights with just a hint of Japanese accent: “Your ritesare on.” Eventually the voice got confused, talking about doors instead of headlights, and finally went silent. I chose not to restore the voice with a $300 microchip because I did not need my car nagging me. 

I suspect the auto industry is going through the kind of transition we saw in the computer industry decades ago, when every new software version came with a thick book of instructions. Over the years software for computers and smartphones became more intuitive and user-friendly, and automotive gadgetry may follow the same trajectory. My car salesman suggested that auto companies are scrambling to keep pace with cell phone advances to connect only those apps that do not interfere with driving. My periodic service appointments at the Subaru dealer probably will include the occasional software upgrade. 

Auto companies may need to emulate the tech companies in user training and support, like the Apple Store’s classes for new users and its tech support resources. One stopgap measure is a wealth of video tutorials on YouTube, including one that helped me program the car to open my garage door. 

On the other hand, helping motorists understand the technology in their cars may not be the point. The confusion we’re coping with may be the auto industry’s way of preparing us to welcome self-driving cars in a few years. 

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The old headquarters building

Posted on November 21, 2023 by Jim

They’re renovating the building where I spent most of my career. The former Illinois Bell Telephone headquarters in downtown Chicago was sold some years ago. It’s about to re-emerge as an updated office tower and just landed a law firm as a major tenant.

The building was practically new when I began working there in 1968. It was one of three buildings. Illinois Bell built its original headquarters at 212 Washington in the 1920s, expanded into an adjacent building of similar vintage and built the new 30-story building at 225 W. Randolph in 1966 to occupy most of the city block bounded by Randolph, Wells, Washington and Franklin. 

It was an impressive complex with an expansive lobby that extended through the new and old buildings, a motor pool in the basement and a pedestrian plaza on Franklin St. Walking into the place made me feel kind of important. The complex was occupied by several thousand of the nearly 40,000 employees who worked for Illinois Bell when I joined the company.

I was impressed that the public relations department that hired me was at the very top of the building, on the 30th floor – which suggested that my profession was really important to the company. Years later one of the engineers who helped design the building told me that because this was the tallest building in the West Loop, they were worried that an airplane could hit the top floor. So they put the executives on the 28th floor and the engineers prudently located their offices on the 15th floor. 

The building became an unplanned addition to Chicago’s art scene. One of my colleagues was an art expert who told his vice president that the boring but lavishly framed print on his office wall was a piece of trash. He suggested that as long as the company had to decorate the new building’s miles of beige corridors, buying original paintings from unknown artists would be a better value than traditional prints of landscapes and ruminant cattle.

The executives gave the guy a budget and turned him loose to buy art but were a little worried when he brought in a collection of wildly abstract paintings. They proved to be popular with employees who welcomed the addition of a little color to the 60s-modern décor. This evolved into a permanent art program with periodic art shows in the building’s lobby. Over the years Illinois Bell’s art collection increased in value and became a significant capital asset, which probably gave the company’s regulatory accountants fits. 

The building was strictly an office headquarters without the phone company’s switchboards and equipment. Its design was a product of its time, an open floor plan with a central core of elevators and glass curtain walls. It reflected the company’s hierarchy with private offices for managers and cubicles or open desks for working stiffs with identical furniture. I started out in a cubicle and eventually was promoted to a 10-foot-square office with a carpet, water jug and speakerphone. Higher-ranking managers got bigger offices with fancier water jugs. 

Overall, the building was a fairly pleasant place to work. The entire 20th floor was a cafeteria and employee lounge. Coffee carts circulated through the offices twice a day and in the 1980s we got robot mail carts. Its location on the west edge of Chicago’s Loop was a couple of blocks from the El and commuter trains with plenty of restaurants within easy walking distance. 

For many years the company leased space in the building to a barbershop. Not only did the barber enjoy a steady clientele, but whenever he had a gripe about his lease he would complain directly to the executives in his barber chair. When his shop eventually closed the barber opened a cell phone dealership.

After I left the company in 1990 the older buildings on Washington were sold and renovated as luxury condos with a new parking garage on the Franklin St. plaza. A private developer purchased the 225 Randolph building in 2007 and leased it back to AT&T until last year. The building was granted landmark status in 2021. 

My 22-year career with Illinois Bell had more good years than bad ones. There even were a few times when I left the building after dark, looked up at its looming 30 stories and thought: “Yep, I think I moved it an inch today.”

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Communicating during a strike

Posted on September 4, 2023 by Jim

In 1968 I celebrated Labor Day in the middle of a strike.

I was hired by Illinois Bell Telephone’s public relations department when I got out of the Navy in April of that year, shortly after a five-month strike began. Because the telephone company cannot shut down during a strike, management employees were pressed into service to keep the system working. I was a switchboard operator, installed phones and drove a supply truck through hostile picket lines.

I finally got around to working in public relations but strikes became a key component of my career. I went through six contract strikes: 1968 and 1971 at Illinois Bell, 1974 at Western Electric, 1983 and 1989 at Illinois Bell and a school strike in 1998 when I was an independent consultant. Not counting wildcat walkouts. 

After that first strike I was a public relations manager rather than a substitute installer. I handled media relations for the Western Electric strike in 1974, employee communications for Illinois Bell’s 1989 strike, and assisted with strike-related PR in 1971 and 1983. 

Strikes are best avoided and can be devastating if allowed to drag on for months. When they happen, managing communications is an interesting professional challenge that I found satisfying.

How strikes happen

Union-management bargaining is an adversarial process in which both sides press demands and negotiate a compromise. Labor contracts are detailed and the minutiae of union jurisdiction, shift differentials and work rules are as open to negotiations as wages and benefits. Management usually is willing to trade higher wages and benefits for more flexible work rules.

Information warfare is part of the process because the union needs the support of its members to go out on strike if necessary. Management needs to explain its position to employees, customers and investors. Local politicians may get into the act at the request of the union.  Both sides use a variety of legal tactics that generally will be misunderstood by the news media. 

When bargaining begins, unions members vote to authorize a strike. This does NOT mean they are voting to strike (as the news media report) but merely authorizing their leadership to call a strike if negotiations break down. Otherwise the union will have no bargaining power. 

When negotiations break down the union calls a strike. Not all strikes are alike. A strike lasting a few days is largely symbolic: Workers blow off steam, are convinced that their leaders are tough and make up any lost wages with overtime. More serious strikes last longer. 

Wildcat strikes are walkouts that are not authorized by the union, usually by a small group of employees expressing a local grievance. I’m sure it was just coincidence that I saw a number of wildcat strikes on warm Friday afternoons in springtime.

A strike has its own rules of engagement. The union has the prerogative to be combative and shrill because it needs the news media to motivate its members and enlist public support for the strike. Management, on the other hand, must be restrained and statesmanlike to maintain its relations with customers, investors and regulators. The result is a media slugfest in which the union attacks and management counters union disinformation in a cross between a chess game and a bar fight. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The news media arena

Strikes at large companies are always newsworthy.  Most reporters know nothing about bargaining procedures and labor law and are inclined to side with the union. During the first day of the Western Electric strike I had an amusing exchange with a reporter on live radio. The reporter announced that 16,000 employees were on strike and asked me to comment. I quickly corrected him and said we had 11,000 employees on strike. 

For some reason the reporter chose to argue with me (on live radio), insisting that the union claimed 16,000 strikers. I explained that the company is in a better position than the union to know how many people are at work because they punch timecards and we pay them. The reporter continued to stand by the union’s claim. Finally I said: “If you want to believe there are 16,000 people on strike that’s fine, but let me assure you that only 11,000 of them work for Western Electric.”

Some union disinformation tactics are more challenging. During Illinois Bell labor negotiations the union got the National Organization for Women to release a statement charging that the company’s proposed contract was unfair to women because it offered higher wage increases to top technician job titles that were dominated by men. Within a few hours we countered with statistics showing that employees in lower pay grades were being offered a higher-percentage wage increase, and that the majority of employees promoted into the top job titles were women. The news media quickly dropped the story and many of our women managers dropped their NOW memberships. 

Since management usually is on the receiving end of media attacks, quick response is essential. At Illinois Bell and Western Electric my public relations colleagues and I worked closely with labor relations executives and lawyers who could approve our statements quickly enough to win the news cycle. 

That was not possible when I worked with a suburban school district during a teachers’ strike. The school board spent all day micromanaging a media statement and the union dominated the news coverage. I resolved to never again take on a public school board as a client. 

Keeping employees informed

Communicating with employees during a strike is even more important than fighting the news battle. Most employees have only a vague idea of why they’re striking. A proposal for modest changes to the company medical plan will prompt folks on the picket line to scream that the company is taking away their healthcare. 

Employee communications is a long-term investment. Illinois Bell and Western Electric, both subsidiaries of AT&T, had earned credibility by keeping employees well-informed through publications and supervisory communications. Illinois Bell’s phone-in employee newscast on an answering system was so popular during strikes that we had to add circuits to meet demand for up-to-the-minute information. 

Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works in Chicago had a general manager who was good at communicating with employees on the factory floor. The strike called by the company’s national union saw vandalism and violence at other locations, but at Hawthorne the GM visited the picket line every day to chat with striking employees. I could even ride my bicycle through the picket lines without being hassled. 

The communications job isn’t over when an agreement ends the strike. The union needs to convince its members to ratify the contract — not a sure thing – by boasting that the strike was a decisive victory. Most union contracts are a victory for management, too, but management needs to wait until the contract is ratified to tell shareholders how much money the company saved by negotiating more flexible work rules. 

As inflation continues to drag down the economy we’re likely to see more strikes. In most cases, at least in the private sector, they will end quickly and confirm a healthy balance of power between labor and management. I will enjoy watching from the sidelines, will miss the gamesmanship and will not believe what I see in the news media. 

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The drama of the HOA

Posted on August 31, 2023 by Jim

I joined a growing trend three years ago when I sold my sprawling house in Albuquerque and built a smaller home in an active-adult community in nearby Los Lunas. Folks my age are living longer than previous generations and active-adult communities are a lifestyle choice for those of us who are not yet ready for assisted living.

Active-adult communities are the fastest-growing segment of the housing market. In my home state of New Mexico, retirees are the only population group that is growing. In the Jubilee community where I live, at least half of my neighbors moved here from other states. 

Jubilee’s 500 or so residents live in single-family homes and enjoy a variety of resort-style amenities and activities. Most of the activities are organized by the residents themselves: from hiking and pickleball groups to book clubs, yoga classes, social gatherings, volunteer projects and even a resident rock band. There’s a strong sense of community and nearly everyone I’ve met has been friendly and helpful. Jubilee is one of the most successful communities of its kind and has won several national awards. 

Managing all of this falls to the homeowner’s association. The HOA is responsible for maintaining the clubhouse, landscaping common areas and front yards, maintaining the streets and governing what amounts to a miniature city. The association contracts with a community management company that collects monthly HOA assessments and employs a full-time community manager to keep everything running. 

Overall, Jubilee runs smoothly and mostly harmoniously. Resident committees oversee landscaping, fitness and social activities, and administer rules about property improvements with a light touch. The HOA board is another animal, however. 

The HOA technically represents the homeowners. But because Jubilee still is under construction, state law allows the developer to control the HOA board until the community is mostly built. While some active-adult communities are owned by national companies, our developer is a local entrepreneur. He’s mostly well-intentioned but no better or worse than others of his ethically challenged breed. 

The split responsibility between the developer and HOA makes conflict inevitable. Questions of which expenses are charged to the developer or the homeowners are subject to debate between the two homeowners’ representatives and the three developer-appointed board members. There also are a couple of disputes with the developer that are being litigated and eventually will be settled in court. 

What makes the HOA board’s work even more challenging is its constituents. My neighbors are mostly retired professional and business people who have experience, talent and time on their hands. They are actively engaged in their community and are not to be trifled with. We’re a tough crowd.

Homeowners include accountants who second-guess the financial statements and lawyers who have memorized the association’s governing documents and applicable state law. Every subject before the HOA board attracts a few residents who are very knowledgeable and have strong opinions. There’s also an informal community council that subjects the HOA board to further scrutiny.

All of this makes board meetings high drama as restive residents cheer on the homeowner board members as they butt heads with the developer-appointed members over every item of business. When I moved to Jubilee shortly after Covid hit this took place via Zoom as dozens of grumpy geriatrics learned to get online and un-mute themselves. Board meetings have continued on Zoom and typically last a couple of hours. Last week the HOA’s annual meeting was held in person and attracted well over 100 homeowners. It was orderly but heated and lasted for several hours. 

Despite the HOA’s drama Jubilee has remained a happy place. Passionate as my neighbors are at HOA meetings, they’re cordial to one another (and even to the developer) when the meeting ends. Then it’s back to the pool, the pickleball court and the Friday potluck. 

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Operation Homecoming

Posted on June 20, 2023 by Jim

I was waiting on the tarmac at Glenview Naval Air Station when they arrived on a cold night in March 50 years ago. The American former prisoners of war had been released from North Vietnam. Now they were on their way to the Great Lakes Naval Hospital to be reunited with their families and begin their recovery from years of brutal captivity. 

The arrival was part of Operation Homecoming, the return of 591 American prisoners of war following the Paris Peace Accords that ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. In February 1973, The POWs were flown from Hanoi to an Air Force base in the Philippines, and from there to military hospitals close to their homes across the U.S. 

They were coming home to a country that had turned against the war they fought. I had returned from overseas six years earlier to anti-war protests in Chicago and demonstrators at the gate of the naval base. When I began looking for a civilian job one recruiter advised me not to tell prospective employers I had served in Vietnam. On reserve duty in the Pentagon I was instructed to wear civilian clothing because servicemen in uniform were being hassled on the streets of Washington. 

Plans to repatriate the POWs had been under way for several years. The National League of POW/MIA Families was organized in 1970 to call attention to the mistreatment of POWs in North Vietnam. The Defense Department organized a careful process to recover the POWs, restore them to health and reunite them with their families. The date of the POWs’ release was unknown but contingency plans took shape during the peace negotiations. 

Early in 1973 the public affairs office at the Great Lakes Naval Base asked my Chicago reserve unit for volunteers to staff a media relations center when the POWs returned. Undated orders allowed the Navy to recall us to temporary active duty on 24 hours’ notice. Our bags were packed when release of the POWs in Hanoi set the plan in motion. 

Our mission was to facilitate news media coverage of the arrival but shield the POWs from interviews and reporters’ shouted questions. When the airplane carrying the POWs arrived at Glenview we kept the unhappy reporters behind a barrier. 

Compared to major installations such as Travis Air Force Base in California, only a handful of POWs came to Glenview and Great Lakes. Their arrival followed a standard pattern. Each man, in full uniform, stepped off the aircraft, was greeted by the local commander, walked up to a microphone to say a few words and then greeted his family before being driven to the Great Lakes hospital. 

They all said pretty much the same thing, thanking the President and the American people and expressing their patriotism. The reporters were disappointed and a little suspicious. Were the POWs following orders that told them what to say?  We replied that we knew of no restrictions on what the POWs could say but explained that these guys were all Navy and Air Force aviators who belonged to an elite group: carefully screened, highly trained and intensely loyal to their units. It was no surprise that their statements were similar. We learned later that the POWs had created their own command structure while in captivity and decided among themselves what they were going to say when they were released. 

Back at the Great Lakes hospital, we continued to field media queries about how the POWs were doing. One of our reservists, George Wendt (father of the Cheers actor), got on the phone and reached out to local businesses to make the POWs’ stay a little easier. He persuaded a furniture dealer to deliver a reclining chair to the hospital room of each POW (and I think the POWs got to take the chairs home, too). An auto dealer gave each POW family the use of a new car during their stay in the area. 

The warm welcome of the POWs by the Nixon administration, including inviting them to the biggest-ever White House dinner, was a step toward healing the divisions of the Vietnam War. Recognition was slower in coming for Vietnam veterans in general. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened in Washington in 1982. And in 1986, I finally got to attend a welcome parade for Vietnam veterans in Chicago. 

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Why we need more immigration

Posted on May 19, 2023 by Jim

Okay, the border is a mess. Even the news media are beginning to admit it. But we still need more immigrants because Americans aren’t making enough babies and are not growing the talent we need to sustain the country. 

The U.S. birth rate has been declining since 2005 and is at its lowest point in more than a century. Changing priorities – fewer people getting married and deciding to have children –may be the most likely explanation. Increasing support for abortion and sex-change surgery will depress the birth rate a little more. The U.S. population is growing at the slowest rate since the nation’s founding and immigration is driving what little growth we’re seeing. 

We’ve always been a nation of immigrants, of course. In the Nineteenth Century the U.S. welcomed the poor, tired, huddled masses of Europe and Ireland. We needed lots of unskilled labor to settle the frontier, fight the Civil War and work in the factories. 

Things are different today because the United States now breeds its own poor, tired, huddled masses. American students have significantly lower academic test scores than their peers in most developed nations. More than three-quarters of young Americans are unfit for military service. Only 62% of working-age Americans are working or looking for work, a lower labor participation rate than most countries. 

We still need unskilled labor but have a greater need for workers with critical skills: doctors, nurses, teachers, construction workers, airline pilots, truck drivers and more. As Americans become less employable, opening the border to Central American migrants who are even more poorly educated will not produce the workforce we need.

It’s not just a labor shortage: The United States is becoming a dumber country. In addition to declining school test scores, an increasing number of problems facing our society are self-inflicted: the result of bad decisions by poorly qualified people in bumbling institutions. If we don’t have enough smart people to build a railroad, keep the streets safe and the lights on, or even keep baby formula on the shelves, how can we expect to remain competitive as a nation? 

So we don’t just need immigrants, we need immigrants with brains. It is unlikely that the next Elon Musk is wading across the Rio Grande. We need to be proactive in attracting immigrants who are educated, productive and have the potential to move the country forward.

Instead of favoring the underclass of Central America, we need to attract immigrants from the many countries that have better schools than we do such as Poland, Vietnam and Japan. Offering green cards to foreign-born graduates of U.S. universities would be a good start. The merit-based immigration systems in countries like Canada, Denmark and Australia may be worth emulating. We already hire teachers from the Philippines to fill vacancies in U.S. schools. How about recruiting physicians from Britain and Cuba to offset our doctor shortage? 

We ought to start enlisting immigrants in the Armed Forces now to offset a serious recruiting shortfall. Immigrants have fought in every war in United States history and there is no reason why they should not serve now. Most of the illegal immigrants being welcomed at the Southern border are military-age young men. It should be possible to recruit the cream of this crop for military service, screen them for criminal ties, give them a crash course in English and offer them legal status once they’ve completed satisfactory military service. 

The United States needs to rejuvenate its population in both quantity and quality. We can easily do so because at least 150 million people across the world want to move here. You’d think our government would seize the opportunity to select immigrants who are best equipped to help the country prosper instead of letting Mexican smuggling cartels decide who crosses the border. 

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The hidden promise of artificial intelligence

Posted on April 17, 2023 by Jim

Futurists and science-fiction writers have been warning us about artificial intelligence for years. Movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey advanced the notion that computers eventually will be smarter than we are and ultimately will take over. Open the pod bay doors, Hal.

Now artificial intelligence (AI) technology is here. ChatBot systems like ChatGPT connect a language capability to large-scale digital research – which enables it to answer questions and write college term papers. It’s as if the annoyingly lame “chat” feature on customer service websites just graduated from MIT and swallowed Google. This has led to speculation about the number and kinds of jobs AI could replace such as customer service people, data analysts, paralegals, market analysts, even journalists.

So powerful is this technology that experts like Elon Musk are calling for a pause in developing artificial intelligence to figure things out and make sure the technology is used responsibly. 

Predictably, the politicians are getting involved. The rapid growth of ChatGPT is prompting calls for regulation from Congress. I’m sure our elected representatives are concerned about the potential impact of artificial intelligence on democracy and their constituents. 

There may be a more important motivation:  Politicians are worried that artificial intelligence will replace THEM.

This may be a valid concern, especially for members of Congress. Consider what our elected representatives actually do. They make speeches. So can ChatGPT. Legislators review information and vote on legislation. Check. We already know ChatGPT is politically biased. I’ll bet the system even can be programmed to ask donors for contributions.

The senior senator from my state is a case in point. Since the U.S. Senate no longer debates legislation, his speeches on the Senate floor are largely performative and ripe for ChatGPT. My senator is in such lock-step with his donors and party leaders that his floor votes probably could be handled by a basic iPhone app. His social media posts already may be automated. 

Replacing Congress with artificial intelligence would be disruptive, of course. How can we expect 435 representatives and 100 senators to find honest work? Will we still need ribbon-cutting ceremonies for government projects? 

There may be some advantages, however. Artificial intelligence is lots better at math than any elected representative. It would be less likely to approve government spending the taxpayers can’t afford. 

What if a robo-representative could be programmed to evaluate public opinion polling and actually represent the views of the majority of its constituents? It probably would adopt moderate positions on issues such as abortion instead of stampeding to the extremes pushed by advocacy groups. 

This could make the government logical, businesslike and unifying, and that would be really disruptive. Eliminating political outrage would threaten the business models of CNN, Fox News, the New York Times and other media. But I guess the news media could survive by adopting their own radical change: use automated reporters to produce fair and balanced news coverage. 

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St. Pat’s in the desert

Posted on March 17, 2023 by Jim

One of the few things I miss about my hometown of Chicago is St. Patrick’s Day. Even though my ancestry is Scottish and Hungarian, every Chicagoan is Irish on St Pat’s Day and that’s what makes it special. 

Not that I was expecting much Hibernian heritage when I moved to New Mexico. When I suggest dying the Rio Grande green nobody knows what I’m talking about. I’m tempted to prank my town’s rattlesnake removal service (yes, we have one) by calling the snake hotline on March 17 and asking for St. Patrick, but they probably wouldn’t get the joke. 

Ethnic celebrations are an American tradition that reminds us of our immigrant heritage and honors the melting pot we have become. They are inherently inclusive because everyone, regardless of nationality, is welcome. When I was growing up in Chicago the city had a big celebration and parade for practically every ethnic group. Everyone could be Irish for a day, or Puerto Rican or Greek. Or get stuck in a traffic jam on Kosciuszko Day, as I once did.

Wallethub ranks Albuquerque’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration only 113th of the 200 largest cities in the U.S. The city ranks higher for Cinco de Mayo and goes all out for Dia de los Muertos. I explain to my New Mexico friends that Chicago celebrates the Day of the Dead, too, but there it’s known as election day. Albuquerque also has Celtic, Greek, Asian and Scandinavian festivals that are too small to merit parades and major hoopla. 

Columbus Day used to be a big Italian celebration. One of the reasons it became a national holiday was to counter discrimination against Italian-Americans. Canceling Columbus eliminates a celebration that has not been fully replaced (especially for the Italians). 

So far Indigenous Peoples Day has been more about airing grievances – like the Festivus holiday popularized by the Seinfeld TV show – and tearing down monuments. I hope this changes as new holidays evolve. Indigenous Peoples Day has tremendous potential for inclusive celebration of a rich heritage and culture. I want to see a big parade in Albuquerque with fry-bread stands. 

Juneteenth parades are beginning to take place in some cities and that’s a positive trend. Perhaps the millions of Central Americans wading across the Rio Grande eventually will organize Venezuelan and Honduran festivals wherever they settle. The more the merrier. 

Ethnic celebrations are a way of celebrating our diversity that actually unifies us. At a time when Americans are more divided than ever, we need more parades and parties. And maybe a little green beer.

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