Look For the Helpers

Whenever natural disasters or tragedies strike, I like to think of the advice Fred Rogers--or Mister Rogers for those old enough to remember--provided when he was asked how to talk to kids about such big and scary events:

“My mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world.”

While Mr Rogers offered this advice for parents, those of us in the media should be more inclined to follow it as well. 

I guess we have to blame the 24-hour news cycle that requires "exclusive content" or "breaking news" every 30-second out of fear that the viewer or listener is going to get bored and move on to another station or website--but we got way off-base with some of the stuff that received major coverage this week.  We can start with First Lady Melania Trump's footwear on her visit to the disaster zone.  Some poor fact-checker in a New York newsroom probably had to peruse countless on-line shoe catalogs to determine the exact height of the stiletto heels so the talking head going on about how "clueless the Trumps are" could sound "informed".

Then we got sidetracked by Joel Osteen and his church having to be publicly shamed into providing assistance to flood victims.  Can you remember any stories about the pastors that were out there in the waist high water helping evacuees?  I can tell you that every social media user wanted us to know that the mosques of Houston were open for evacuees seeking shelter.

And then there was the continuous selling of the "victimization angle".  While it won't win an Edward R Murrow Award or a Peabody the CNN reporter getting cussed out on live TV by a harried evacuee for whom "how does it feel to be flooded out of your home" became the straw that broke the camel's back:

 



 

What we really needed was more coverage like that of Sally Jenkins from the Washington Post who expressed in an article on the "Cajun Navy" surprise that backwoods "rednecks" from East Texas and Louisiana would come to Houston on their own time and their own dime to not only help people they don't know--but to be more effective than the government first responders with the expensive high-tech equipment and training.  And we need to not only spotlight Wisconsinite JJ Watt for his social media fundraising efforts--but all of those who have contributed to his cause.

So if you can sift through the articles and reports on "Trump didn't even talk to or hug any of the victims" stuff--and look for the helpers--you will find the real stories in this disaster.

Not Another New Orleans

Don't be surprised if four or five years from now there will be a number of on-line articles or news network features on the vast differences between how New Orleans recovered from Hurricane Katrina and how Houston bounced back from Hurricane Harvey.  Much will be made about how the "Crescent City" continues to feel the effects of the devastation in 2005--while "H Town" will be back to the bustling metropolis it was before this week.

The biggest advantage that Houston has is that it is the hub of America's energy industry.  Giant oil and natural gas companies are based there--employing hundreds of thousands of people in both production, processing and administration.  America runs on cheap energy and those companies need to be working at all times to prevent this from becoming a national disaster.  That urgency alone will ensure that resources needed for infrastructure, housing and supply chain restoration will take place--and take place quickly.

While it is an important shipping and port city, New Orleans does not have that "corporate" attitude.  Anyone who's been there can tell you "The Big Easy" lives up to that moniker--as the folks there aren't going to bust their butts to get something done that can't wait until tomorrow--or next year.  New Orleans is really a dumpy tourist town.  What were the first areas to be "restored" after Katrina?  The French Quarter, the Superdome and the Convention Center area--so that the people who don't live there could "return to normalcy".

Add to that the fierce independence of Texans.  Houston officials and residents would be embarrassed if five or ten years from now they weren't back to being the "biggest and the best".  And they won't be blaming "the Government" for not doing enough to help the recovery.

That doesn't mean that everything will go back to exactly the way it was before.  Like low-income parts of New Orleans, depressed sections of Houston will likely never bounce back.  Those that are displaced by Harvey will never come back--set adrift like many that came to Houston from New Orleans in the wake of Katrina--and never had a reason to return.  Hopefully, they will move on to places not along the Gulf Coast this time.

While the scenes of devastation after the flood waters recede will look the same, the paths that America's two latest disaster zones will take from here couldn't be any more different.

The Scapegoat

It appears that the public has found its scapegoat for the hurricane and flooding in Houston.  You may recall that the person blamed for all failures during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in FEMA Director Michael Brown--especially after President Bush told the world "Brownie's doin' a great job" while news video continued to show people hoping to be rescued from their roofs.  President Bush was blamed as well--because he didn't come to New Orleans soon enough (because he was a racist that didn't care about the predominantly black victims of the flooding)--as opposed to President Trump, who is being criticized for coming to Houston too soon because resources used to protect him and coordinate the visit should be used in search and rescue efforts.

Amazingly, the scapegoat for Hurricane Harvey is not a Republican politician or a political appointee.  Instead, public scorn has turned against Pastor Joel Osteen.  If the name sounds familiar, you have likely seen Osteen's televised sermons--or seen him interviewed on talk shows--usually about coping with disaster or loss.  Osteen is the pastor at Lakewood Church--a mega-church that purchased the former Summit Arena where the Houston Rockets used to play in order to seat more than 16-thousand people for their services. 

Lakewood Church is coming under fire because it closed its doors this week--and is not taking in evacuees from flooded parts of the city.  "Church officials"--not Osteen himself--issued a press release stating that the area around the church is inaccessible--which led hundreds of people to drive down to the church site and post pictures on-line of non-flooded streets and a building with the lights still on.  Many of those posts are then followed by pictures of Osteen's multi-million dollar estate--from where he is believed to be tweeting generic bromides about grace and faith.  Lakewood is adding to the public outrage by launching a hurricane relief donation page that does not promise to share the money with the Red Cross or other disaster relief groups--but rather will go to Lakewood itself and its "efforts to rebuild the community".

Contrast that to former Wisconsin Badger and current Houston Texans defensive lineman JJ Watt, who is becoming even more of a hero in Houston by donating $100,000 to hurricane relief efforts and challenging his fans to contribute even more.  That fund is quickly approaching a million bucks. 

Is Joel Osteen to blame for a hurricane hitting Houston--stalling along its path and dumping prodigious amounts of rain upon the area?  Obviously not--despite his claims to have "connections" with the power his followers believe controls such phenomenon.  But failing to follow through on the promise of service and aid to those in need certainly makes you an easy target.

Since Demand is Dwindling....

If the city of Oshkosh is going to sell Lakeshore Golf Course for a new Oshkosh Corporation world headquarters, or for residential development or even for retail use, I hope that it is not just for a one-time cash grab--but rather it is done as part of a comprehensive review of recreational programs throughout the city.  Most city parks--not just those in Oshkosh--are based on a 60-year old concept of people's activities and interests.  If city leaders and Councilmembers are as "progressive" as they claim to be, ALL parks facilities would be brought up to "modern" usage and demand.

Let's start with ball diamonds.  Most of the facilities in Oshkosh were built in the 1950's when baseball was "America's Pastime".  Neighborhood kids would congregate in the morning--choose up sides--and play until their mother's called them home for dinner.  Now, those diamonds sit empty nearly all day--until the organized leagues come in to use them for just a couple of months out of the year.  And those leagues are struggling to maintain participation levels--so much so that the YMCA now runs youth baseball in the city--while OYB just fields the more-profitable traveling all-star teams.  Adult softball is seeing a precipitous drop in league play as well, as people find plenty of other activities to fill their summer nights.  Doing away with many of the ball diamonds in Oshkosh--and having the Y host their leagues on their site--would open up space in Menominee Park for high-end lakeview condos and room for more senior living in Red Arrow Park.

Playgrounds are another archaic recreational idea that take up space and city resources.  When was the last time you told your child to go to the playground--without your supervision--to play for the day?  "Stranger danger" has all but killed hanging out at the park--and today's "safety first" equipment is boring.  That's what makes the equipment fertile grounds for vandalism--nobody is ever using it.  And when families do come down to swing or slide, the kids usually grow bored within 20-minutes and want to watch videos on the Ipod.  There is additional space the city can sell for boutique coffee shops next to the aforementioned senior living and condo units.

Even vast green spaces are underutilized today.  You can't play fetch with your dog off a leash--and there is a dogpark for that already in town.  The idea of bringing a picnic to the park to eat on a blanket spread on the ground is so old-fashioned that it makes people laugh.  It's so much easier to grab drive-thru at the fast food place and eat in your car.  Limiting our recreational areas to pavilions that generate rental income or bike and walking trails that take up less space and appeal to the few people who want to get out and be active makes far more sense.

And don't think that our decreased demand for recreation space and programs is just a temporary thing.  TV networks are considering covering "eSports"--just like they do professional leagues like the NFL and Major League Baseball.  That means our next generation of "stars" will be inspired not to field grounders from Dad at the neighborhood diamond or to work on their jump shots at the concrete courts but rather to spend more time on their couch hooked up to a virtual reality headsets and game controllers.

So go ahead and put all the research into selling Lakeshore Golf Course you need to do, Oshkosh officials.  It's the first step toward our inevitable future as a fat and lazy city.

Foxconn Yawn

I just can't get excited about the Foxconn deal.  For starters, Governor Scott Walker's insistence that the project be called "Wiscon Valley"--trying to be cute and steal from "Silicon Valley"--is annoying and anyone else in the media using that term should be taken out behind the woodshed.  Secondly, I'm just not a big fan of the company.  Critics are right, they have a track record of splashy announcements and promises of development--that fall through under questionable circumstances.

The main thing for me is I worry about the quality of the goods they will be manufacturing here.  I get the feeling that the flat-screen monitors that will be built in Wisconsin will be the kind that Walmart, Target and Kohl's sell as "doorbusters" on Black Friday--not the top-of-the-line stuff but so cheap that you feel it's okay to buy them as a gift because it will make you look like a big spender.  Then you see they are some brand you never heard of, like ASUS or Element.  Oh well, good enough for the 4-year old to have in her bedroom.

For three billion dollars, we should be able to lure some kick-butt American companies to Wisconsin.  It would be awesome if we could be home to a new Jeep Wrangler production facility.  How much more American could you get than to have two icons--Jeeps and Harleys--made just a few miles apart?  General Electric recently announced it was moving from Connecticut to Boston--maybe we could have made a late pitch to score that relocation.  Door County could take the place of vacation homes in the Hamptonss for all of those corporate executives.

For three billion bucks, the state could set up the Oshkosh Corporation with the new world headquarters it wants right here in town without bulldozing over Lakeshore Golf Course.  That should be more than enough money to buy out all of the property owners along the lake on the opposite side of Interstate 41 for a shiny new building on the water.

Will the investment in Foxconn really pay off in the long run?  Probably.  Will more tech companies look to locate facilities in our state?  More than likely.  But will it be an exciting growth industry that becomes a source of pride for Wisconsin--or just a bunch of big buildings between Milwaukee and Chicago where people work at mundane jobs?  I'm thinking it will be the latter.

Not "That" One

In the TV show Seinfeld, Elaine once dated a man that shared a name with serial killer Joel Rifkin.  Of course, in the episode Joel is paged by the public address announcer at Giants Stadium during a football game, leading Elaine to have to explain "He's not that one" to all of the fans around them.  She tries to convince him to change his name--even suggesting "OJ"--which is ironic, as that episode aired just a couple of months before OJ Simpson's infamous white Bronco chase on national TV and his being charged with killing his ex-wife, Nicole, and Ron Goldman.

Now in the latest episode of life imitating art, sportscaster Robert Lee finds himself embroiled in a controversy over his name.  No doubt you've heard that ESPN pulled Lee off the play-by-play for the University of Virginia football game against William and Mary over concerns that his sharing a name with a Confederate general would be inappropriate after what happened in Charlottesville last week.  After news of the transfer was leaked to a website by someone inside of ESPN, the network tried to explain the move as "protection" for Lee--whom they feared would be the butt of on-line jokes and social media memes.

I'd be willing to bet that if ESPN had not made the switch, and Lee did the UVA game next week, there would have been no backlash--from internet trolls or the easily-offended people on the Left--because no one would have noticed.  Virginia-William and Mary was going to be on ESPN3--which is a streaming-only service.  Diehard Cavalier fans would have logged on to watch--and I'd be willing to bet that the last time any of them thought about the Civil War was in their 8th grade US History class.  And the only thing that would have offended social activists on the Charlottesville campus that Saturday afternoon is the William and Mary team name: The Tribe.

But now, poor Robert Lee will have no choice but to adopt a new on-air name (which is very common in TV and Radio anyway).  "Bob Lee" won't work--because ESPN already has a Bob Ley--who has been with the network since it's inception in 1979 and somehow has never once been considered offensive to African-Americans or inappropriate for broadcasting an event in The South.  Some names he might want to avoid: Chris Columbus, Jeff Davis and Joe Goebbels.  He'll probably still want to pass on OJ as well.

Total Eclipse of the Brain

Because nothing can't be politicized nowadays, a meme started making the rounds this week asking why everyone accepted the predictions of the solar eclipse without question.  It was meant to chide global warming "deniers" or global warming "enjoyers" like me.

But what the meme creator is missing is that no one was demanding major economic and social changes in order to "prevent" the eclipse.  There was no adoption of international treaties meant only to limit the growth of Western economies.  Nobody was proposing shutting down entire industries because of the eclipse.  Cheaper forms of energy weren't being replaced with more expensive and less reliable power sources.  And nobody wanted to ban certain types of light bulbs for use during the eclipse.

If anything, the eclipse did more to "speed up" climate change--and it was those "most concerned" about it that were doing most of the damage.  Consider that Alaska Airlines provided a charter flight that flew into the shadow of the moon over the Pacific Ocean and then went back to the airport from which it took off.  Jet fuel was wasted and more carbon was put into the atmosphere just so about 200-people could see the eclipse "first".  A cruise ship company also sent out a boat with Bonnie Tyler singing "Total Eclipse of the Heart"--for people who wanted to be the "last" to experience the eclipse.

Then there were the millions of Americans that drove hundreds and thousands of miles to be in the "path of totality"--and then idled in heavy traffic in towns not able to handle so much congestion.  The TV networks that broadcast all of the climate change alarm reports and specials on the horrible future that awaits all of us, broadcast live for several hours from locations all across the country--sending their satellite signals back using trucks idling for hours burning diesel gas.  NASA--home of so many of the "concerned climate scientists" flew several planes in the eclipse path (granted, for research purposes).  And millions of plastic and chemical-coated "eclipse glasses" are on their way to landfills across the country this week--where they will sit for decades.

And all of this carbon burning and energy usage went toward those "concerned about the environment" to spend about two minutes in the shadow of the moon.  Of course, they described it as a "lesson in how fragile our planet is"--oblivious to their own hypocrisy.