Moving Pains

We’re moving. After 14 years in the same house we decided it was time to downsize. It’s a season in life thing, you know? We were lucky, very lucky. Our home sold in just two weeks. The buyers though, wanted us out in five weeks. Trust me; that isn't a lot of time to clean closets you last looked in the day you moved into the house. Don’t even mention the attic, the garage or the crawl space.

The idea of moving into a brand new home is exciting. It’s the kind of thing that starts with a Sunday afternoon drive and one of those “What if we…” conversations. Next thing you know the papers are signed and you’re looking forward to a new adventure. Like a hangover, it hits you on the morning after. There may be a few things you never thought of while you were deciding what color to paint your new dining room. You actually have to move. Packing, a lot of packing is involved. Still you tend to underestimate the pain factor.

For one thing, you have some tough decisions to make. Not like what to do about Iran and its potential nuclear capability. That’s easy. We’re talking about what to do with fine china that doesn’t even make an appearance on Thanksgiving anymore. If you are even thinking about moving I have some friendly advice.     

            If you own any firearms, baseball bats or an archery bow, be sure to pack them first and send them to a neutral third party. Consider packing the knives and any other sharp objects you have as well. These simple steps will ensure that neither you nor your spouse will use them on each other. You will both be overtired and emotional. Listen: Over the last two weeks there were moments when I pondered the idea that my new address might well be a maximum security cell in the penitentiary rather than Nolensville, Tennessee.

            Permit me to explain. Before any actual packing begins you have to decide what to keep, what to give to Goodwill and what to put out on trash day. If you’ve been married a long time like we have, unless you suffer from clutter phobia, there is no way you don’t have stuff you should have discarded years ago. When my wife went through one of our closets and agonized over whether to get rid of a dress that was still cellophane wrapped with the dry cleaner label from New Jersey, I berated myself for not having a divorce lawyer on speed dial. We left New Jersey 18 years ago. That dress and its many friends in the closet have enjoyed luxury closet living in several states except when they inhabited expensive wardrobe boxes. I put my foot down. The dresses had to go.

            My wife could not have been kinder about it. She agreed that it was time to let some things go. Then she said, “Len, let’s look in the attic. I’m sure there are some things up there we can get rid of while we’re at it.” We did find a few items. Every speech I ever wrote for my Toastmasters club during the last 30 years was in one of the three filing cabinets I keep. There were income tax returns from the 1970s. And, there were letters, some going back 40 years. I patiently explained that one day those letters would come in handy when it was time to write my memoir. She rolled her eyes and pointed to the trash bag. I complied. She has a speed dial too.

            We went through a lot of paper. So much paper that the original estimate we got from the moving company was high. We’re talking thousands of pounds of paper. You think I’m exaggerating right? Want to know what it cost us to move from New Jersey to Tennessee in 1994? Interested in what our heating bill was for January 1978? Had you asked a week ago I could have told you. At long last these critical documents have met their maker; Shred-it. Of course we did consider retaining the services of Iron Mountain instead, but we came to our senses on that one thanks to a compromise. I get to keep one of my filing cabinets. That dress is moving with us to a closet in Nolensville.  

                         

 

Seriously? We need Fact Checkers?

President Washington says he loves America and will do whatever it takes to protect the environment. Yet he’s proud of chopping down the cherry tree. How many more trees will he chop down? You can make him stop. Vote for me on Election Day. I’m John Adams and I approved this message.

            Obviously, John Adams never ran an ad like this. Hardly anyone had a television in 1792. And fact checkers wouldn’t appear on the scene for another 220 years. They are a fact of life now though. With good reason I’m afraid.     

In his speech at the Republican Party’s convention last month, Mitt Romney said that Obama began his presidency with an apology tour. According to factchecker.org, the President did no such thing.   

In his speech to the Democratic national convention the President said U.S. automakers are “back on top of the world.” But factchecker.org says GM has slipped back to No. 2 and is headed for third place in global sales this year, behind Toyota and Volkswagen.

When our Presidential candidates are bending the truth or telling outright lies we all lose. There is an ocean of information for voters to wade through as they try to discern which candidate is more likely to move the nation in the right direction. It would help tremendously if we weren’t forced to distinguish information from misinformation. 

Am I the only one that’s bothered by the fact that we actually need organizations like factcheck.org and Pinocchio Tracker? If you’re running for President aren’t voters entitled to assurances that you won’t lie to us? You might think that presidential candidates would be highly insulted by the very accusation that they lied, that he or she would excoriate the person or organization making such a claim. Shouldn’t lying, at least the bold faced variety, disqualify a candidate from the race?

But that’s not the way it works in 2012, far from it. In fact, Romney pollster Neil Newhouse told an ABC News panel, “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.” He said this in response to accusations that a Romney ad suggesting that Obama was removing work requirements for welfare eligibility was dead wrong.

When Delaware Governor Jack Markel said at the Democratic National convention that Mitt Romney likes to fire people, he deliberately took the Governor’s words out of context. Romney was clearly referring to health insurance providers and the services they provide.  In fact, Romney was simply stating he likes to be able to fire people who don’t provide good service. Honestly, don’t we all? His comments had nothing whatsoever to do with taking pleasure in firing workers.

One of the most insidious effects of campaigns that play games with the truth is the way they distract us from the real issues. When Newt Gingrich called President Obama “the best food stamp president in American history,” there were charges that he was oversimplifying the issue. The number of people on food stamps rose in seven out of the eight years Bush was president, in part due to changes in program policy. It’s also true that Obama inherited an extremely distressed economy. Regardless, when the debate devolves into a he said/she said contest, there is very little room for useful debate. Is it too easy to get food stamps, just right too hard? If 15% of the population really needs food stamps, what are we going to do to solve the problem? Arguing over which political party is at fault or what the real numbers are is self defeating. If our candidates can’t even agree on facts, chances of finding a solution are obviously reduced.

Is it any wonder voters are cynical? We are being asked to choose between leaders who are cynical about voters. They ask for our trust but don’t trust us in return. Then there’s the cynical media circus. Filled mostly with partisans, they strangle the airwaves with minutiae which deprive us of facts, options and learned opinions to help us grasp the issues. The paradox of our times is that we live in an era when the issues are more complex than ever while the discussion becomes less sophisticated every election cycle.

In his farewell address George Washington said, “I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is the best policy.”