Brave New World

In the beginning, the country’s public radio stations decided they needed an organization to provide them with world and national news. Probably based on As It Happen from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio (NPR)’s All Things Considered was started.  If the member stations all kicked in, it was theorized, together they could afford a formidable news-gathering operation.  Today, WAMC alone pays the network more than $800,000 a year. That’s a lot of money.  It’s worth it, but it’s a tremendous burden considering all the other things we do here. read more

Reply All

Years ago, someone in the WAMC family received a group e-mail from one of the apologists in the NPR system who thinks that every time NPR wants something at the expense of the member stations, they should get it. Our wonderful staff member forwarded me a copy of this guy’s pathetic whine and at the top of his words wrote, “What a d**khead.” A few minutes later, our the staff member appeared at my door head down and announced that she might have to resign because instead of just forwarding the guy’s letter to me, she forwarded it to all recipients of the original letter. Her somewhat ribald but altogether accurate response went to everyone on the so-called “list,” a listserv that is open to all public radio personnel around the country. Of course, I told our wonderful staff member that “…truth was the best defense,” and she would be here as long as I was. That was a long time ago and she is still here and still doing great work.Who among us hasn’t done something similar at one time or the other? I certainly have. In fact, a lot of people wrote back to our staff member commending her on her perception and honesty. Because of our tendency to make these mistakes, we have established “The Golden D**k-head Award” which is presented to the person of the moment who has ill-advisedly “replied to all.” I am sure that you can all relate to this but it is just a matter of time until we say something that is either libelous or slanderous. Then it will be time to issue a formal apology. read more

Cuomo will make peace with the unions before 2016

It was organized labor unions that gave working people in this country a chance to share in the American dream. Now these same unions are under attack and it shows in the decreasing numbers of Americans who join unions. Some of the problems, of course, have to do with the often incorrect perception on the part of many Americans that unions have been infiltrated by shady characters and are led by fat cats who smoke big cigars and ride around in fancy cars. This narrative continues that the initiative that made this country great has been drained out of the American spirit because of unions. In a lot of places, when people are asked to join a union they do not, fearing that their already low wages will be drained even further and that they will have little to show for their investment. read more

Prostitution has a tough, sad history

The tabloids in New York, as salacious as ever, are making the arrest of yet another madam into major front-page news. This latest case involves a woman who has been arrested, thus far, on one count of promoting prostitution. Obviously all this publicity assures that she, or someone of her choosing, will write a best seller and ultimately become a millionaire. read more

We need to keep good teachers on the job

New York state’s teachers are under assault. It isn’t fair and it isn’t right. These are some of the most important people in our lives. There will always be unscrupulous politicians who try to scapegoat our teachers and it is really an abomination that this stuff goes on. It’s incomprehensible to me that people think our teachers have it easy and are overpaid for what they do. My wife taught in every grade of our schools and ended up as a full professor of education. I worked very hard as a college professor but not nearly as hard as she did when she was in the schools. She would get to work at 7:30 and teach six high school classes a day. She had literally hundreds of students. She’d get home around 5:00 after all her committee meetings, conferences and drawing up the lesson plans for the next day. read more

A visible love may outweigh senseless hate

Ripped from the headlines: More interracial couples tie knot: The whole idea of racial prejudice is such an anathema to me that I grieve when I recognize it in our country. Just think of it: Until a relatively short time ago, it was against the law for people of different races to marry. The southern states were the worst. Finally, the Supreme Court of the United States stepped in and put an end to laws steeped in segregation. read more