July 2016: Turkey

     Let’s begin with a caveat, a most obvious caveat. I am writing this letter about the Republic of Turkey and I am an Armenian American living in the Diaspora. Three of my four grandparents survived the Armenian Genocide and migrated to the United States to create a new life. My fourth grandparent, my paternal grandmother, was born in Andover, MA. Her father, Nishan, for whom I am named had the foresight to leave Ottoman Turkey after the pre-Genocide pogroms of 1895 and 1905. I am concerned about Turkey and what happens there because of the shared history and the fact that I might have even been a citizen of that country. While I am concerned, my views are biased in the obvious slant but with a recent twist.
      I used to want chaos and anarchy in Turkey. This was early on in my life. Most of my adult life, I have been looking and hoping for any and all changes that might be favorable to the Armenian Cause of admission of the Genocide, neighborly relations with the Republic of Armenia, and ultimately restitution. Admittedly, the probability of these things happening was always on the rather on the very low side.
     The point of this letter is really the current state of affairs in Turkey. It all seems to revolve, even orbit around, their enigmatic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Plain and simple, I think he is a bad character. All of his actions in the past year have been to consolidate power in a most dictatorial manner while garbed in the rhetoric of being legally and democratically elected. Erdoğan is following the play book of Russia’s Putin and Venezuela’s Chavez.
     Oddly, I am probably aligned with many of my Turkish friends and acquaintences in this country on this view of Erdoğan. They tend to believe in the secular state created by Kemal Attaturk. We may agree or not agree on the Armenian Genocide. But, I sense that we agree that Erdoğan is a bad character.
     I did not always think he was a bad character. From an Armenian perspective, we saw the restoration of the Aghtamar Church. We saw the Republic not thwart the restoration of the St. Garabed Church in Diyarbekir and the generally embracing of the Armenian heritage of the city by the city government. How much of this was due to Erdoğan? That is certainly debatable now, but when these events were unfolding, I was giving him the benefit of the doubt. We did see Erdoğan extend an olive branch of sorts to the Armenians in April of 2014. We mostly rejected it as a ploy to undermine the significance of the impending 100th Anniversary of the Genocide.
     And let us not forget that Hrant Dink was assassinated during the early days of Erdoğan’s regime.
     There was an eletion in June 2015. In that election Erdoğan’s party, the Justice and Development Part lost seats in parliament to a Kurdish based reform party. This election gave hope to liberal minded folks in Turkey as well as Kurds, and Armenians around the world that maybe the country was headed in a better direction. But, sadly, it was just a “Turkish Spring.” The hope was soon dashed as a government could not be cobbled and another election was called. Immediately, there was terrorism in Turkey and Erdoğan blamed the Kurds. The second election in November 2015 put Erdoğan’s party firmly in control again and he lauded this victory “as a return to stability.”
     I was pretty certain he and his party loyalists had allowed and maybe even planned the terror events to separate the Kurds from the real Turks. Recreate a threat that fires up old animosities and fears and win the election. Sadly, it worked. Even more sadly, no other countries, like the United States, or press seemed to see what seemed so very obvious.
     Maybe, deals had been cut behind the scenes. That is the only possible explanation. An entire US government of bright people could not have missed what seemed so obvious. Is the “alliance” with Turkey that important. Is the Incirlik Air Base so critical to our strategy in that part of the world that we are willing to overlook Erdoğan’s actions and believe only his rhetoric?
     We Armenians have our own rhetoric. We tend to believe that we are superior to Turks in most regards. We think we are smarter, more honest, harder working, and, oddly, better fighters… we only lost everything because of duplicity and overwhelming force strength.
     I have to give the variousTurkish governments from Ottoman days to today their due on two fronts. They are great and clandestine planners of whatever it is they do to hold power. Secondly, they are consummate diplomats. This explanation is the only thing that helps me make sense of it all. With regard to the United States, it goes back to at least the early days of the Republic when the Turkish government so deftly engaged Admiral Mark Bristol into their camp. That hoodwinking has lasted policywise to these times. There seems to be no end in sight either.
     In the war against ISIS (ISIL, Dash, or the Devil Incarnate take your pick), Turkey is our ally. They have taken in refugees. They have fought with us to defeat this very real and very scary threat.
     Sure they have. No really, they have.
     Yet, early on in their engagement, all they did was attack the Kurds who were valiantly fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq. It was horrible and the only folks that really called them on this in the West were political cartoonists. Again, maybe our diplomats dressed them down behind closed doors. But maybe, a deal was cut behind those closed doors. The United States and allies can keep bases in Turkey (ah… Incirlik again) and Turkey helps us fight ISIS while also teaching the Kurds a lesson. While they were teaching the Kurds a lesson, amid all the chaos in Syria, they could allow ISIS or Turks pretending to be ISIS to freely attack the last Western Armenian village, Kessab. The force that attacked Kessab originated in Turkey and picked a most convenient night when the border crossing they used was left unattended.
     So, while I was having some positive thoughts about Erdoğan before 2014, they have all been dashed (DASHed perhaps) since the election that signaled the famed “return to stability.”
     At the time of this writing, July 31st, there was an Op-Ed in the New York Times. It was written by Michael A. McFaul, a Hoover Institution Fellow, a Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford, and was, from 2012 – 2014) Ambassador from the United States to the Russian Federation. In his Op-Ed, he stated:

Since… 2012, Mr. Putin has consolidated his hold on power in Russia. With renewed vigor, he’s weakened civil society, undermined independent media, supressed any opposition and scared off big business from supporting government critics. And he made the United States and its senior officials unwitting elements of his malign strategy.

     Change the year from 2012 to 2015 or 2016, replace Putin’s name with Erdoğan’s, and try tell me that the statement doesn’t ring equally true!

     To this point in this letter, I have not even addressed the elephant in the living room: The July 15th coup attempt in Turkey. It was gripping news. It seemed the military, or as it turned out a faction within the military, tried to take overthrow the government. The military has done this in Turkey several times in the history of the Republic of Turkey. They had traditionally done so to protect the tenets of the Republic created by the much revered Kemal Attaturk. Attaturk created a secular and democratic Republic. When the military perceived either the deomocrocy or secular state threatened they would take over for awhile and restore order… return the country to stability.
     Erdoğan and his party have been more Islamist than most followers and adherents of Attaturk are comfortable with. Erdoğan cleaned house at the top of the military to, no matter what excuse was used, prevent the military from taking over his government when the country was beginning to look less secular. He replaced the top brass with generals and admirals loyal to him. The newcasters kept pointing this out during the coup and stressing that this coup was different and less effective because it was only “a faction” of the military leadership.
     Erdoğan called on the people, the loyal people of the Republic, by facebook mind you, to hit the streets and thwart the coup. They did. They won. Erdoğan said it was an uprising of the people to protect democracy in Turkey. I was kind of disheartened that he did not use the words “return to stability” at all. That’s OK, because I have no problem facetiously quoting his words over and over again in this letter.
     Erdoğan was praised in the reports the evening of the coup for his bold and most successful action in support of the democratically elected government. And then…
     Then he gave his first speech. It was a firebrand speech in which he vowed that all perpetrators would be brought to swift justice. He accused Fetulah Gulen, a cleric based in the United States who has set up Islamic schools all over this country, as being the perpetrator of the coup. He said he would be asking the United States to extradite Gulen (he said nothing about Incirlik… that must only be brought up behind those closed doors I keep referring to). He talked about restoring the death penalty for these traitors… maybe they can have public hangings like they did to Armenian citizens… err traitors… I mean enemies in 1915. Heck, the perpetrators of the coup might even have Armenian blood! Why not disgrace and denegrate their heritage before hanging them.
     I must apolgize. I was doing so well avoiding hyperbole until that last paragraph. Let’s get back to the facts... well the facts as I think I see them.
     Al-Monitor.com claims that 124 Generals and Admirals have been arrested. Half of these were promoted after the 2013 purge of the military leadership. So, basically, half of those arrested were Erdoğan’s appointees. Appointing and annointing people only to arrest them later is right out of Stalin’s playbook to drive both fear of and allegiance to a megalomaniac.
     In an article on TheConversation.com, Professor Fatma Müge Göçek of the University of Michigan reported that:

In a crackdown that rapidly spread across civil and military services, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the closure of thousands of private schools and many universities. Some 15,000 employees at the education ministry were fired, while more than 1,500 university deans were asked to resign.

“Asked to resign,” indeed.
     It really has become a purge after the putsch. Erdoğan immediately blamed it on his old ally turned nemisis Fethullah Gülen. Gülen and Erdoğan teamed up during the Justice and Development Party’s rise to power. They were both working toward making Turkey less secular. When the party and Erdoğan ascended to lead the government, Gülen became the odd man out, a Trotsky to Erdoğan’s Stalin to continue a tenuous analogy. Gülen exiled himself to the United States, a much better choice so far than Trotsky going to Mexico, and lives the life of a “humble” cleric whose Hizmet (Service) Movement sponsors around 1,000 schools around the world.
     Erdoğan is blaming Gülen for, well, everything related to the putsch. He wants the United States to extradite him. Needless to say, the United States is probably not going to do that without some hard evidence. I read the following in a blog of Dani Rodrik, the Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government:

…is the CIA behind Gulen? In fact for most Turks this is a rather rhetorical question, with an incontrovertible answer. The belief that Gulen and his activities are orchestrated by the U.S. is as strongly held as it is widespread among Turks of all political coloration – secular or Islamist.

     Dang, if only the CIA were that good.
     Gülen on the other hand has an opposite point of view. In a July 16th article in the Daily Mail, Gulen basically accuses Erdoğan of staging the coup as an excuse to crush all opposition and consolidate power. Basically, most Armenians I know probably have the same perspective.

Speaking from his home, Gulen claimed democracy in Turkey could not be achieved through military action.

He condemned the plot, although authorities in Ankara are not convinced.
He said: 'There is a slight chance, there is a possibility that it could be a staged coup. It could be meant for court accusations and associations.'

He added: 'It appears that they have no tolerance for any movement, any group, any organisation that is not under their total control.'

     I do stand corrected, Gülen only said there was a “slight chance” a mere “probability” that it was all staged. And if he did, it was only in a heartfelt effort to maintain stability.
     I am not sure where Turkey will end up. I feel confident in saying the following however. Erdoğan will come out of this with a greater grip on power and he will hold on to that power for the rest of his life. Turkey will be less secular and a democratic republic in name only. The United States policy towards Turkey will proably not change much (WTF is wrong with us?). Life will be more difficult for the Kurds in Turkey. Even though his image is everywhereAttaturk will continue to be downplayed. Erdoğan is the new father of the country… in his own mind.
     Next? Trying to figure out what the heck is happening across the Ararat border in Armenia.

July 2015: Potpourri

     In my Desire to Catch-Up: I began writing this musing e-letter in July of 2015. It is now January 3rd and I am just finishing it. There is a lot of negative things I can say about this lack of discipline, effort, etc. etc. But what is the point? I will celebrate instead, in a glass half full way, that I did finish and distribute it.

      Since I am writing this on January 3, 2016 allow me to acknowledge two special birthdays. My sister Nancy is celebrating a milestone birthday that ends in a zero. My grandson, Vaughn Alexan, is celebrating his first. Happy birthday to Nancy and Vaughn!

      Polygamy Cometh? In June, US Supreme Court ruled that Gay Marriage was a constitutional right. Mostly supporters were quite happy. Facebook was full of joy and well wishes. There was an app that many folks used to add a rainbow tint to their cover photos. Amid all of this were also posts where folks felt their religious views trampled on.
      Me?

      I wrote about this in December of 2010. I pretty much stand where I was then. I am more amazed by what was once taboo is now the norm and what was once the accepted bias is now taboo. This amazes me. I am not so sure why this amazes me and not others. Maybe I am more an observer.
     I do observe that people are happy that they can wed, that they have legal status, and shared benefits. This is good and a long time in coming. Yet, I also sympathize with good decent people who feel that a leg has been kicked out from their belief structure.
     I also observe religions having to come to grips with this. The Wall Street Journal had an Op Ed on June 30th said that this, Obergefell v. Hodges, decision will result in more litigation than even Roe v. Wade. There is a lot of hyperbole in the article but I think the author has a point.
     The title of the December 2010 article was Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – Polygamy. Then as well as now, I am kind of wondering what the social implications of this monumental ruling will have. Then as now, I am suggesting that Polygamy is next in line to, first, become acceptable and then to be the law of the land. I find this logical extension amusing. Amusing? How so?
     Polygamy amuses me because of there is a delicious dichotomy with Islam and Mormonism. Both these religions, and I am spitballing here, probably are against same sex marriage but might view polygamy favorably. How can one not be amused by this? 

     By logical extension, polygamy should be a legal no brainer. We are talking about consenting adults. Marriage used to be between a man and woman. Now, that has been opened to men marrying men and women marrying women. One thing that did not change is that marriage is one-to-one. It was and is between two people.

     You are not allowed to marry yourself which would actually be an intriguing topic for a future blog. You are also not allowed to marry two men and three women. Certainly, there is the well-known fact or belief that people have to put in a whole lot of effort to make work. If this is true about one-to-one marriages, imagine how hard it would be to make a polygamous committee function with any degree of civility.

     The reason polygamy will not gain the legal status of marriage as defined as today. One of the compelling features of marriage is the sharing of benefits. Gay couples and nuclear families can now cover their loved ones just as heterosexual marriages and families have always done.

     Corporations were ahead of the curve on this one. They had established the status of partner to cover gay marriages years before the first legal gay marriage. It made sense for both creating a harmonious workforce but also to avoid the kinds of litigations that were obviously coming. 

     When it comes to polygamy, it is doubtful that the corporate world would want to adopt this. The reason is quite simple: the cost factor. People covered could grow geometrically in the multi-spouse world. People would marry their friends with no sexual benefits just to get them real benefits. Prenuptials could cover the estate planning issues. Because of this, I do not anticipate polygamy being legalized very soon. 

     Hold on, Just a Second: On June 30, the last minute of the day was 61 seconds long. The extra second, referred to as a leap second, was added to keep the atomic clocks in sync with the earth’s rotation which apparently has irregularities.

     Leap seconds are not scheduled on a regular basis as are Leap Years. This is all managed by the International Earth Rotation System and Reference Systems Service (IERS) an international organization established in 1987 and headquartered in Germany. We did not really need Leap Seconds before we established official time as set by atomic clocks. The variation of atomic clocks is apparently less than the variation of the earth’s rotation. So, every once in a while a second must be added or subtracted from the atomic clock so it stays in sync with the earth.

     When I was a kid, this would have bothered me. Leap year bothered me. I expected, wanted, perhaps even demanded that the physical world operate in a fixed and predictable manner. Variation and entropy made no sense to me. I simply did not understand how or why God did not design things in a more orderly fashion.

     Over the years, I have clearly gotten over this. Part of the passage from adolescence into adulthood is to except certain thing as just the way they are. This, of course, included cosmic architecture and design. The universe operates as it does. The measurement and tracking of time is a human invention. Whatever underlying postulates guide our logic and science are not necessarily in sync with the aforementioned cosmic architecture and design. Variation is part of the cosmic architecture and design. 

     All this is so much blah blah where astronomy and theology overlap. In the case of the extra second on June 30th, it was unnoticeable. If it weren’t in the news, I would have been blissfully unaware. 

     ISIS Revisited: I just learned that ISIS executed an Armenian, Hovsep Tomasyan, in Kobane on June 24th. Per Asbarez.com:

Four ISIS members wearing Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) uniforms shot the 45-year-old father on the morning of June 24, according to Aram [Hovsep’s 14 year old son]. “My father was bleeding from his heart when he fell on the ground. Despite this he still raised his hand and said, ‘Son, run, they are ISIS.’ I ran. If I hadn’t run, I would have been shot too…”

     In this year when we are commemorating the Armenian Genocide, we are watching the last Christians being driven out of Iraq and Syria because of the civil wars. It seems ISIS has earned at the lion share of the blame for their brutal treatment of Christians and Moslems that are not like them. It was inevitable that Armenians living in Iraq or Syria would become casualties. I am sure Tomasyan is not the first. I am simply sickened by all of this and especially this second Genocide of Christians by ISIS. 

     The world really is doing nothing. The US is doing nothing. As I wrote a year ago, ISIS is partly our creation. But, after prolonged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that were stalemates if not outright defeats, we do not have the resolve to go back in. There is some moral outrage. We are providing some air support and military advisors in Iraq. But, there is nothing like Mideast Relief. 

     There were two points of view that resonated with me when I read them. First, we are underestimating ISIS the same way the world underestimated the Bolsheviks when they overthrew Russia. The underestimation is not in the brutality against innocents but rather their military resolve and evolving capability. 

     The meager response of whatever coalition or alliance we think we are in are leaving the fighting to the Kurds and whatever Iraqi Army there is. It is unclear what the result of all this will be in Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan, and perhaps even Turkey. I am hoping that ISIS is not part of it.
     Salt Craze: Let’s move from the serious to the truly mundane.

     I never gave salt much thought. It came in a blue cardboard cylinder from the Chicago base

Morton company that mined it from the huge salt mines underneath Chicago. When I was younger, I thought our table sale came from the Detroit Salt Mines. But no, the salt mined from under Detroit is used for rock salt and de-icing products.
     In teaching microeconomics, I use table salt as an example when we cover price elasticity of demand which is the sensitivity of demand to changes in price of an item. My point is that table salt, the Morton blue cylinder, is bought so infrequently that no one ever remembers the price last paid for the product. If you need salt, you buy it and it has almost nothing to do with the price.
     Well… that was the case.
     Now, the table and cooking salt market has kind of expanded into different and more expensive variants. There is Kosher Salt and sea salts of a dizzying variety. A quick internet search yields sea salts from France, Italy, Peru, and the Himalayas. Sea salts are also infused with almost any other spice or flavoring one can think of from roasted garlic to porcini from vanilla bean to matcha (green tea). Samplers of these gourmet salts can be $130 for 24 small 5 oz bottles. This comes to $.82 per oz. The 26 oz cylinder of Morton sells for $2.43 or $.093 per oz. These new salts are getting a 9-fold price premium. It seems crazy to me.
     There are two websites that provided most of the information in this article. Between the both of them, you would get all you need to know about this sea salt craze.

1. Sea Salt - Tech Insider
2. Authority Nutrition - Different Types of Salt. This is the source of the table at the end of this letter.

     What is it about sea salt versus regular old table salt. Table salt is processed a bit more. They have anti-clumping agents in them thus allowing for the Morton tag line of “When it rains, it pours.” Generic table salt is also iodized. Goiters caused by iodine deficiency was a bigger problem in the past. In the early 1900s, it was decided to iodize salt and solve this problem. Most sea salts are not iodized nor do they contain the anti-clumping agents. Sea salts are dried and are thus naturally flakier and coarser than the highly ground table salts which until recently were the only standard.

Kosher salt is almost exactly the same as table salt except for a few key differences. While they are both mined from seabeds and salt deposits, kosher salt's individual grains are coarse, asymmetric, and slightly larger than table salts'. That's because it's left to dry naturally after it's mined. It also generally doesn't have any anti-clumping agents or iodine additives, making it the purer cousin of table salt. 

And despite its confusing name, kosher salt is not actually kosher. Rather, it's used in the koshering process. To remove "impurities" from meat, people slather the rough salt onto the outside of a cut to pull blood from surface tissues. The big grains absorb a lot of blood and can be easily washed away after the process without leaving the meat too salty.
~ Tech Insider

      People like sea salt because they are something new, more expensive and hence differentiating, and there is a perception that they are more natural or healthy. OK… according to the two weblinks, they are not any more healthy than regular old table salt. Salt is essential to our diets. Yet, too much salt is unhealthy no matter if it is Morton, Maldon, Indian Black Sea Salt, Celtic Salt, Kosher Salt, or Chicago Street Salt. Salt is one of the top three taste components used in foods. The other two are sugar and fat. In moderation they are good, in excess all three are bad. I never reach for the salt shaker though it is always on the table. Most food is salty enough, especially if it is processed and packaged (read the labels if you doubt me). This is why I am only writing about these exotic sea salts instead of being a consumer of them.
      What makes Pink Himalyan Sea Salt pink and desired by so many gourmets? Rust. Iron Oxide. Yum. It is the trace minerals, or impurities if you prefer, that give the variety of sea salts their distinction. Come to think of it, rust is coarse and flakey too.
      Lastly, this sea salt thing has spread to confections. In our never ceasing efforts to create unhealthy but delicious foods, we now have Salted Caramel. Sweet and salty like sweet and sour seems oxymoronic. Yet, it is everywhere. I do believe regular old caramel candies can still be purchased but for the most part all I see are Salted Caramel this and that everywhere I go.

July 2014: Road Trips

On June 26, our first grandchild, Aris Gabriel, was born.  We were absolutely delighted.  We absolutely had to get to DC.
      Upon getting the news that his birth was imminent we began looking for flights to Washington DC.  Yikes!  Sticker shock! The prices were outrageous.  They were at least double what we were spending the last time we flew to DC.  Of course, we were buying the tickets the day before we were leaving and planning to head to DC during the most busy tourist times of the year:  the 4th of July.  Still, it was shocking.  This was not an isolated sticker shock.  We have noticed over the past year in any of the air travel we were planning.
     In the post Great Recession world, there have been many changes.  One of them has been the increase in airfares due to a number of factors.  First and foremost, the airlines have consolidated.  The three main carriers in the US are American, United, and Delta.  All airlines have trimmed their fleets and routes, taxes have increased, and jet fuel is at an all-time high.  It used to be useful to check several different airlines and travel sites to find the best deals.  The market has become more efficient in terms of pricing and all the various travel websites reporting the same prices per airline per route.  Even with these higher fares, the planes are all full.  The pricing clearly reflects the supply and demand.
      As a result of not being able to find reasonable airfares, we decided to drive to Washington DC to welcome Aris Gabriel to this world.  It was 728 miles each way and it took about twelve hours with two stops for gas, food, and to wash our hands.  Except maybe taking our children from Connecticut to South Bend and Ann Arbor for school, we have not regularly made car trips of these kinds of distances.  We flew.  But, times have changed and such road trips may become more the norm than the exception.
     We drove south through Chicago and into Indiana where we caught I-80.  We took I-80 east across Indiana and Ohio.  We then took a right turn onto I-76 just before entering Pennsylvania.  We proceeded into Maryland and into DC.  We left on June 26th and returned on July 6th.  The weather was good and scenery was very nice especially in Pennsylvania.  Surprisingly, there was minimal road construction and the traffic was moderate.
     When I was a kid, there was never a question of fly or drive.  The answer was always to drive.  With a family of six, it was simply more economical.  We used to travel every year from Detroit to Watertown, MA to visit my paternal grandmother.  We never went to Boston, we always went to Watertown.  We would go through Canada taking the 401 to the QEW.  We would connect to the New York Thruway and then the Massachusetts Turnpike into Boston.  On those trips, I used to read the signs and see all the various places we could stop and see interesting things none of which come to mind as I write this except Niagara Falls.  I never thought to ask because my Dad was not one for stopping, he wanted to push and get there.  Mom packed food for the trip so we never bought anything at the rest stops.  I always took note of all the touristic tchotchkes that we never bought.  We travelled according to our budget and our means.
     When I first became a business road warrior, I always bought these tchotchkes back.  I bought them because they were fun.  I bought them because I could easily afford what we couldn’t back in the day.  I bought bottle openers, refrigerator magnets, miniature hour glasses, key chains, and other useless things for our kids or the kitchen.  After a while, as travel became a routine, and I stopped doing that due to a combination of getting buying that silly stuff out of my system and realizing that we did not really need any more bottle opener, egg timers which we never used, and refrigerator magnets which we used all the time.  My travel purchases moved upscale to more memorable, meaningful, and less frequent gifts.  
     In business travel, I liked to visit attractions when time allowed.  I could not do everything I wanted usually due to wanted to get back to the family.  I do recall some memorable weekends in Brussels, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Costa Rica, Lima, and Guatemala to name a few.  My friends and colleagues took me around and showed me some wonderful sights in these countries.  
     This car trip to DC was kind of a throwback.  It was also a study in what was the same and what has changed.  We stopped in four different places:  Indiana, Ohio, and twice in Pennsylvania.  The stops in Indiana and Ohio were rest stops on the toll roads.  In Pennsylvania, we exited the Interstate to stop at those chain gas station mini-department store complexes that are all over the place these days.  In the old days, any gas station we exited the expressway to refuel sold only gasoline, oil, and a few other automotive products.  Maybe they had a gumball machine.  Now, at these department stores, you can purchase groceries, ready to go food offerings that boggle the mind, a full ultra-casual wardrobe, tchotchkes galore, and a full array of automotive parts and accessories.   One place we stopped at have a massive array of jackknives, LED flashlights, hot dogs, pizza, a Subway store within the store, seventeen different varieties of coffee, cell phones, cell phone holders, cell phone chargers, cell phone cases, and clothing from hats to boots and everything in between.  Not surprisingly, every single offering in the place excluding food and automotive parts could be bought in camouflage.  
      The rest stops had the look and feel of the older rest stops and plazas.  One big difference is that the toll road, turnpike, and thruway authorities smartened up in the 1970s and leased out the food service to name brand fast food restaurants.  That was a wise move both for the states and the consumers.  More recently than that the more frequently visited toll road and turnpike rest stops have gone to the food court concept. 

Should have gotten a brochure for the RV/MH
Hall of Fame

The rest stops still had the racks for brochures for all the local touristic places.  These racks are in hotels and rest stops everywhere.  I have seen people browse, but I am not sure if I have ever seen anyone take a brochure with them.
     Back in the day, gas was much less.  We drove cars that took leaded regular gas.  Regular gas was in the 20 - 30 cent range.  Wherever we stopped, they would pump the gas, check the oil, and was the windows for us.  Now, the car we took on this trip, required premium gas.  Every gallon of gas we bought was over $4 per gallon.  In DC proper, I saw one station that was charging $4.99 a gallon.  Needless to say, we did not buy gas there.  We have been hearing about $5 per gallon gasoline for the past few years.  It may really happen this year.  Even at these prices our out of pocket travel costs were a fourth of what two round trip tickets would have cost.  This did not include the extra miles on our car would cost us.

Ugh...

      There are certainly all kinds of movie and sitcom skits and jokes about the various odd roadside attractions in these United States.  There is Carhenge in Nebraska, the largest ball of twine in Kansas, a giant turtle made of car rims in North Dakota, and many others.  There were a few in Detroit that I had actually seen including the Giant Uniroyal Tire and the Giant Stove at the State Fairgrounds.  There are three sites in Illinois, one in a town just a few miles away from my home, which I have not seen.  There is a Giant Bottle of Catsup in Collinsville.  The town of Griggsville has a natural and pesky mosquito problem due to its marshy surroundings.  The town built the largest Purple Martin house to attract these birds that can eat two thousand mosquitoes a day.  In Niles, the town close to me, they have a half scale Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Why most of these attractions start with “The World’s Largest” or “Giant” is, I suppose, to attract people to the venue.
      We have never really stopped at these places.  I joke about it with my wife and the kids when they were with us, but truth be told, we didn’t ever really have time to make a long car ride longer by stopping to the Largest Frying Pan in the world.  We used to drive by all kinds or serious tourist attractions too.  I would have loved to visit Presidential Libraries on our travels.  The only one I ever visited however was the Truman Museum and Library in Independence, MO.  I found it quite interesting and thought to visit as many as I could.  That was in the 1980s, and I yet to visit another.  We did visit the Lincoln home in Springfield, IL.  When we lived in CT, I meant to visit the Franklin Roosevelt Library and Museum in Hyde Park, NY.  It was on 63 miles away… never made it.  I did visit Yale University a few times.  I loved it there.  Because of my fascination with all things nuclear, I wanted to visit the USS Nautilus and Museum in Groton, CT.  When we finally went, the Nautilus was under upkeep and not available for tours.  
      Since our children married, we have taken a few side trips on our way to Detroit.  We always wanted to stop at the famous century old Win Schuler’s Restaurant in Marshall, MI.  As most of our trips were for weekend visits, football games, or particular family events, we seemed to be on a tight schedule.  We finally dined there a few summers ago.  In that same summer, we also visited the Amish town of Shipshewana, IN.  Maybe stopping to smell the roses or to see the Giant Catsup Bottle is something older folks due when their schedules are freer than they once were.  
      On this recent trip to Washington, we passed something that I had not seen before on the Indiana Toll Road:  the RV/MH Hall of Fame.  Really, there is a hall of fame and museum just for recreational vehicles and mobile homes?  Yes there is.  The reason I never noticed it before is because it was founded in 2013.  It is brand spanking new and I have to admit that I had no interest at all in exiting the Toll Road for a quick tour.  Not surprisingly, a Google search revealed their website.  It seems to be a serious place and they have an impressive collection of vintage RVs and mobile homes.  Clicking through the virtual tour was interesting, but really it was all the RV/MH history I would ever need.  This is one roadside attraction I will easily be able to drive right on by.

Shoe Shine Machine... really?

I saw something in one of the rest stops that I have not seen in a long time.  It was a shoe shine machine.  It looked vintage and well worn.  The cost was $1.  I wondered how many people used it these days.  People dress so casual, especially all the folks I saw in the rest stop, that very few people wore the kind of footwear that required polishing.  We also saw one of those machines that flatten out pennies into copper ovals embossed with words and logos of whatever tourist site you were at.  Normally these machines, called Penny Press Machines, cost 51 cents.  The machine keeps the quarters and you get the smashed and embossed penny back.  I got one of these from the NY Thruway years ago, drilled a hole in it, and had it on my keychain for at least ten years.

Penny Press with Pay Phone

A week after this “go see the new grandson” trip,” I had the occasion to go on another kind of classic road trip.  Our band drove from Chicago to Belleville, IL (think St. Louis) to provide listening and dancing music for the annual church dinner of the Holy Virgin Mary and Shoghagat Armenian Church.  As there are five of us and we have a lot of equipment, we load up a minivan and an SUV and make the five hour drive.  We listen to music.  We call other musician friends.  We stop for coffee, food, and bio-breaks.  We reminisce, exaggerate, and laugh a lot.  Oh, that is on the way down.  Being kind of tired after the gig, late hours, and perhaps a libation or two, we are more subdued on the longer trip home the next day.  Needless to say, there is no touristic stops on these kinds of band road trips.  It is all about getting there one day and all about getting home the next.
      Wanting to see the World Cup Final between Germany and Argentina, we got up early on Sunday morning and hit the road.  Coffee and some kind of bready, doughy, breakfast was an absolute necessity for all.  For some reason, I am going to call it fate, GPS took us on side roads longer than we thought it should have before getting on the Interstate.  We saw a Krispy Kreme Donut store and knew that is where we getting coffee and “breakfast.”  GPS guided us another few miles north on whatever road we were on before having us turn right on the road that would take us to the Interstate.  I used the word fate because shortly after making that right, we saw the World’s Largest Catsup Bottle.  Cool.  Check that off of the list.

July 2013: Detroit Files for Bankruptcy

July 19, 2013:  The City of Detroit filed for bankruptcy today.  It is a very sad day.  Many people, including yours truly, could see it coming for years.  I could see it coming for years.  Yet, it is still very sad.

I was really pulling for Mayor Dave Bing.  It seemed like he was a competent leader who might have been able to make a difference if he did not take over a city that was in dire straits (excuse the pun).  He seemed like he genuinely wanted to improve the city and that he wanted to make a difference.  He never got the support he could have used from just about everybody. 

On March 24, 2013, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder appointed an emergency financial manager, Kevyn D. Orr.  The state had revised a law that not only allowed Snyder to make this appointment but provides the emergency financial manager with extraordinary powers over all of the city's finances.  The emergency manager could even recommend that the city file for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy.  Everyone assumed, with this appointment, that bankruptcy was inevitable.  It was not a matter if but rather when.  When happened today July 19, 2013.

I suppose there are those that are reveling in it for a variety of reasons.  Perhaps they are happy to see this happen because it supports some racial prejudice they have from the moment Coleman Young was elected mayor.  Maybe they revel because they are staunch capitalists and believe that bankruptcy is part of mismanagement and giving the city a chance to restructure can and will only be a good thing.

Someone had posted a photo on facebook this week.  It was contrasting Hiroshima in 1945, after the atomic bombing of the city, and in 2012.  Right next to it were images of Detroit for the same years.  In 1945, Hiroshima was rubble and Detroit was a bustling economic power.  In 2012, it was the opposite.  Detroit was in disarray with areas of rubble that look like it has been bombed. 

It is a complete decay of an American city.  I have wrote about my hometown ten months ago September 2012: The City of Detroit. 

facebook Opinions:  There was a recent posting on facebook about the Detroit bankruptcy filing.  It simply said, in white letters on a black square:

Detroit

finally ran out of

other people's money.

There was no end to the comments.  Some folks blamed the democrats for the entire situation labeling them all as corrupt beginning, as noted above, with Coleman Young.  Others thought that was simply too easy a view to take and that the situation was more complicated than that.  Here are some of the comments:

·   I think you could make the argument that all cities run on "other people's money".

·   Disgraceful politicians.  Starting with Colman Young.

·   My family is very concerned about the Police pensions. Our folks are in their late 80 s and depend entirely upon my fathers pension for living expenses.  My father spent 37 years on the Detroit PD and paid into that plan for retirement. This is simply criminal.  My folks live very modestly and the Detroit city officials have squandered the savings of the people who risked their lives everyday to serve and protect. I am at a loss for words.

·   its all from Democrats they've run Detroit into the ground for 70 yrs.

·   We are all Monday morning quarterbacks. How many of us still live in metro Detroit or have contributed to the tax base? Our hometown has survived on the scraps from those who remained for decades

·   It is everyone's problem even though it might not be everyone's fault.

As this discussion (if you can call such things discussions) unfolded, it was clear people were trying to sum up the demise of Detroit in a short one reason sentence.  To me is way more complex than just blaming democrats, blacks, white flight, or the auto industry.  It is partially all of those and more. 

Pensions:  The worst thing about a company going bankrupt is that people could easily lose their pensions.  People work twenty, twenty-five, and thirty plus years.  They were under the implicit contract that they would get a pension.  City wages are good but, certainly at the worker bee level, not enough to save the funds needed to support a couple in their retirement.  People counted on their pensions.  What they counted on could be gone.

Does the same apply to a city?  Cities do not go bankrupt that often.  Detroit is the largest American city to ever file for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy.  They have about 30,000 retirees and the pension obligation is about $9.2 Billion. 

The State of Michigan Constitution has a provision that the unions believe guarantees the pensions and that the pensions not be cut.  The constitution states that "the accrued financial benefits of each pension plan and retirement system in the state and its political subdivisions shall be a contractual obligation which shall not be diminished or impaired thereby."

The "contractual obligation... shall not be diminished or impaired" sounds like pensions cannot be eliminated or reduced.  But, the State Constitution is a document enacted by humans that can be changed.  It is not clear nor predictable what a judge might say or do.  Ultimately, it is a question of what needs to be done to create a workable budget for the City of Detroit.  The amount of revenue, i.e. taxes, is fixed and clearly expenses need to be cut and they have to be cut from somewhere. 

It is a sad state of affairs.  It will no doubt hurt citizens of the city, current employees, and most certainly retirees.  Detroit employees and retirees could be in the same position their counterparts from Enron or Bethlehem Steel.

I currently live in Illinois.  We have per a Bloomberg Article from earlier this year "$97 Billion in unfunded liabilities." 

That is an astounding number which is ten times that of the City of Detroit assuming I am indeed comparing apples to apples.  There are rumblings, perhaps tremors, that Illinois will be next.

The state’s pension deficit increases by $17 million a day, including obligations to current and future retirees, such as judges, university workers and legislators. Illinois has the lowest-graded credit of any U.S. state by Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s partly because of the unfunded retirement plans. Moody’s, S&P and Fitch Ratings all have a negative outlook for the state

Illinois is paying for years of financial mismanagement and political gridlock, resulting in the worst-funded state pension system in U.S., with 39 percent of assets needed to cover projected obligations for five major groups of employees, according to the Civic Federation, a Chicago-based nonprofit research group that tracks government finances.

It sounds like Illinois could end up as the first state to declare bankruptcy if the state government is not able to better manage this moving forward. 

I was tough watching what the Greek people went through the last couple of years because of the financial mess their country is in.  It seems like, in both Detroit and Illinois, we are are experiencing the same.

Obama's Pledge:  In 2012, President Obama pledged that he would not let Detroit go bankrupt.  What happened to that pledge?  The State of Michigan easily went his way in both elections so much so that the Republicans decided not even to campaign there in the last election. 

I have seen a lot of diatribes and vitriol against Obama.  Most of them are simply more excessive than I believe they should be.  In this case, I am surprised more people are not complaining very loudly.  I cannot see providing any foreign aid, with the exception or famine and natural disasters, when we have a major city in such a predicament.  I would add Obama's home state of Illinois to that list. 

I will throw President Bush into the mix as well.  He started the wars in reaction to 9-11.  President Obama has tried to get us out but it has not been very successful nor very quick about it.

While talking about Syria rather than the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, the message is the same.

How much could we have done here if we did fund and fight the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?  Per a Harvard study, those wars have cost us between $4 and $6 Trillion.  That is a staggering sum and the results are nowhere near what it has cost in both dollars and human life.  There is a website, costofwar.com that has one of those continuous update windows that adds approximately $100,000 a second to the cost of the wars.  costofwar.com has the total cost of the wars at 1.46 Trillion.  The cost might be justified if we had actually accomplished anything.  My opinion is we have not.

While not referencing the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the message is directionally correct

No matter which estimate we might use, too much was spent on war and not enough on our own country.  Not enough was spent on fixing what is wrong in this country and that includes fixing places like Detroit.  We could have avoided adding to the deficit with half of what has been spend.  We would have still had plenty of money to use on fixing what is broken at home e.g. in Detroit, in education, and in job creation.

I am definitely full of... naiveté.  But, it is what I believe.

July 22:  It is a few days after the announcement of the filing.  What has changed in Detroit?  I am not sure as I no longer live there.  My suspicion is that there is not much difference in the lives of people in all of Metro Detroit today as compared to the day before the announcement.  People are just going about their business.  They have simply added worrying about what will happen to their daily routine.

I left Detroit in March of 1990.  I had lived in the city from the age of 2 though the age of 15.  Then I lived in the suburbs until I was 36.  I was part of the white flight from the city that decimated its middle class.  I was part of the migration of people out of Detroit and Michigan following the flow of jobs to other parts of the country.  i moved to take a job in New York City and lived in Connecticut. 

I did not stay.  I did not stay and contribute to the economy.  I did not stay and get involved in politics.

The city was not in very good shape when I left.  The worst was yet to come. 

Like many that left, and many that stayed, we lament the demise of our city that was once the gritty tough paragon of industrial towns.  Like many that left, I wish that I could do something, anything, to help revitalize the city.  Perhaps that is why I am in the Greater Waukegan Development Coalition which is dedicated to re-establishing a viable industrial and business base in the city of Waukegan, IL.  Waukegan is not nearly in the condition that Detroit is, but it can use all the assistance it can get.

Solution:  Enough whining already.  Most certainly, there is enough finger pointing and blame to go around.  No matter what caused the current state of Detroit.  It is the current state.  What should be done?  Hopefully, this inevitable filing for bankruptcy will allow for a plan that moves the city forward again. 

Here are my thoughts of what I would like to see come out of this.

Jobs and business:

First and foremost, there has to be a serious and seriously incentivized business development plan to bring jobs to the city.  A frank and stark reality is, if the plan includes unions, only start-ups will be attracted.  The trend is away from unions and the great union friendly city and state need to face that reality.  The city needs industry and jobs.  It needs the taxes that both will bring.  Seriously incentivized means modest taxes for businesses to relocate in Detroit.

Crime free

Second and almost equally foremost, the city needs to be a safe place.  There can be no room for crime or criminals.  This is heavily tied to the first point in that the lack of jobs make for an increase in crime, organized or otherwise.  Crime can often be the only choice for anyone enterprising.  It makes victims out of everyone who has not or cannot move out.  The police force needs to be bolstered.  Abandoned houses and businesses need to be torn down.  Mayor Bing had a plan of consolidating residents to begin recreating communities.  That idea needs to be explored.

Maybe you centralized everyone around downtown and raze everything else.  It sounds crazy and it is probably too expensive to execute.  But, it is time to think outside the box.

Education

The Detroit Public Schools need a complete overhaul.  They need to stay public.  I used to be for vouchers, charter schools, and academies.  I have changed my mind.  A major strength of this country was the middle class and solid public education.  We have lost our way in both regards. 

How to fund the above

I have no clue how this will be funded.  This could be the real ugly part of this bankruptcy.  I am not for cutting pensions.  I am for Federal Aid.  Treat Detroit like a foreign war zone.  In a way it is.  Divert money from military and foreign aid.  We should not even think about helping anyone else if our own house is not in order.  I will even go so far as to suggest putting stipulations on the city government requiring a balanced budget and a payback of the aid.  The debt and other obligations have to be addressed and dealt with.  The debt has to be negotiated down.  Bankruptcy is a multi-edged sword that will hurt the city, the citizens, the retirees, and the creditors.  There is no way around this.

No one wants to sell whatever assets there are still in the city.  An article in the New York Times on the day bankruptcy was filed pondered the art in the Detroit Institute of Arts being sold off to pay for things.  That would be a sad thing to happen but Detroit is no longer an ars gratia artis kind of place.  Maybe it will be again one day.  Detroit is a place that has hit rock bottom and needs to recreate itself from the ashes of the industrial power it once was.  Detroit has lost many cultural and architectural icons already to either the wrecking ball or neglect.  Sell the art.  It is important but the well being of the people is more important.

Closing:  It is my great hope that the powers that be in Detroit, the State of Michigan, and the Federal Government help create a pathway out of bankruptcy that is as reasonable, fair and equitable as possible for all citizens, retirees, and creditors.