1. Met a young man at the Starbucks who teaches on line classes to become a Social Worker. He, too was skeptical , at first,but explained that his pupils are very involved in their course work. He does chat with his students and keeps a photo of each of them when they have discussions. There are evidently group interactive boards for the students who want to discuss their subjects with each other. Sounds interesting. I recommended a Swedish film, As It Is In Heaven for an awareness of human emotion,the impact of bullying and the eventual healing of the human spirit! As the man said, another New York Minute!
2. NYTimes full page ad by 11 organizations trying to protect themselves as they worry about the fiscal cliff. Instead of waiting, why can’t Congress take up the issue now? Though I personally think,along with others, the Fiscal Cliff will be a non event, Congress could be proactive on this issue. There are many ways to generate revenue, one would be ; increase the tax on capital gains for all trades less then one year. Start treating short term capital gains as income. Our debt will decrease immediately.
3. Poling inNew York was confusing , after 16 years, re- districting has come to the city along with the new scanning devices. It’s hard on seniors, if they come to the wrong polling place. It’s also difficult if you have to write in for a referendum. However; We now know that in spite of Citizens United we still have one man one vote.
4. The Financial Times 11/7/12Wanted : A president to put Can- do spirit back in the US. According to the FT corporations are sitting on over $1 Trillion in cash that they’d like to put to work. Finally, there is recognition, that a change in growth pattern is necessary, creating jobs in construction and retaining workers. Amen! Maybe, just maybe, the next round of fund raising, will come from CEO’s willing to pledge big bucks for Infrastructure, plaques on Subways?
