King Corn

I'm a documentary watcher. The really good ones present a story for you and let you form your own opinions. The best ones are the ones that make you ask questions and think, "wow... I didn't know that." Last night I watched King Corn.

From Netflix:

In Aaron Woolf's thought-provoking documentary, friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis move back to America's Corn Belt to plant an acre of the nation's most-grown and most-subsidized grain in an attempt to follow their crop into the U.S. food supply. What they discover about genetically modified seeds, powerful herbicides and the realities of modern farming calls into question government subsidies, our fast-food lifestyle and the quality of our food.

Being a parent has made me aware of food in a way that I wasn't before. How much we buy, how much it costs and especially what we feed our kids. One thing that we have tried to cut out of our diet is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). This was even before I had heard about King Corn. We make sure that the juice we buy doesn't have it, we buy ketchup now that doesn't have it, and no more soda. We are finding out that it is hard to buy items without HFCS. After watching this documentary, I can see why. HFCS should be on the same list of "very bad for you ingredients" as trans-fats, or hydrogenated oils.

So the one question that watching this film brought up: is the federal government, through their agriculture policies over the last thirty years, inadvertently making us literally fat and happy?

Take ninety minutes of your week and check this documentary out. If you have Netflix, it is available for instant viewing on your computer.

Freethinkers

"Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking."

-Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

The Sun Also Rises In Manchester

The sun rose in the east for yet another day. A fresh, spring day like we get to enjoy every year in Manchester. People getting ready and going to work, kids eating breakfast and finishing last minute homework before school, dogs barking to be let back in the house, newspapers being delivered and read, and town offices and departments opening their doors to serve our town and take care of our community needs yet again. As I drove through town on my way to work this morning, I did not see a single piece of the sky on the ground.

Much to the chagrin of the Democratic Caucus, the Republicans passed their budget last night. I am sure that things are going to be busy for the next few days in General Manager Shanley's Office, as well as in Dr. Ouellette's office; however, this is why they earn what we pay them. Like most of the taxpayers in this town, they are also going to have to make do with a little less than they were expecting.

I have to admit that prior to last night's meeting, I was almost caught up in the emotions caused by the proposed budget cuts. If you are a parent, it's hard not to get riled up when there is a perceived threat to your kid's education. I then took a step back, and decided that I was going to wait and see what was going to happen. Like it or not, the decisions that were made last night were set into motion on election day last year by only seventeen votes. Last night there was little, if anything, a packed Lincoln Center hearing room could have done to change that fact.

I, much like the town, run my household budget from June to the following May. By the beginning of May, I know what my raise is, I have the new tax rates by then, and some good data from the previous year to make an educated guess at the upcoming year. (If you don't use Quicken or MS Money, I highly recommend it.) It was hard this year. I have seen almost every single line item in my budget climb faster in the last year, than in previous years. Those rising costs have eaten into financial plans that are made as a family in my house. Repairs to the house, paying off debt, and saving more. In order to maintain those plans, cuts were made. Sure, we could take the easy path and justify anything really, but we had to be realistic and make the hard choices. It was this process at home that gave me pause, and provided me with a willingness to try to be objective last night.

No doubt about it, there was political grandstanding on both sides leading up to, and during last night's budget adoption meeting. It didn't help that there was some sensationalized press coverage to fan the flames, and the usual party faithful with their cans of gasoline to add fuel when needed. When it came to the end of the meeting, and listening to the majority budget message, I had to agree. In this current economy, how can our town ask for more money that outpaces average taxpayer cost of living increases yet again?

There was a point made last night by the Democrats that I could not agree with more: there needs to be more cooperation and openness during the budget process. Each year in October and November I hear all about bipartisanship from both parties and how the BOD and BOE need to work together. Six months later it is always business as usual. The BOD and BOE battling each other over money, and budget adoption voted along party lines. Both parties need to be more open with their plans earlier in the process, and then allow the voters to speak their minds on those plans. If the BOD wants more citizen involvement, it's time to have their actions match their words.

Voltaire wrote that we should, "Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers." If that is the case, then here are the questions that I am asking:

• If there is such an outcry by the Democrats about being heard on the budget, why didn't they speak at the Waddell Auditorium on April 2nd encouraging the BOD to fully fund the BOE and General Manager's recommended budgets?
  
  
• The Republicans have said that they are going to be bipartisan and would have a more open and accountable government. Then why would they cancel the joint budget deliberations and not reschedule the meeting? Also, why wait until 36 hours before the budget adoption meeting to release their changes?

So, like every year after the budget adoption meeting, the sun rose once again, and the sky is right where it belongs. To me there is one positive outcome of all that has happened over the past six months, according to the Journal Inquirer, the Lincoln Center hearing room was filled to capacity for the first time in six years for a budget adoption meeting. Agree or disagree with the current majority, they are getting more people involved.

"Truthiness" and Being Manipulated

Lately, I fell like I am asking myself the same questions more and more: "Am I being manipulated," or more to the point, "Am I getting screwed?" Those feelings have popped up in everything from paying my bills, filling up my fuel tank, reading the national news, and now even reading the local news. The way I usually combat that feeling is educating myself more, reading more, and trying to understand. Unfortunately, one recent conclusion that I entertained was: gee, maybe ignorance is bliss. Through continuous learning, and being an involved citizen I try not to let apathy take root; however, occasionally it does and I have to weed it out.

A buzzword that went around the media a few years ago was truthiness. It stemmed from the satirical show on Comedy Central, The Colbert Report. It was awarded Merriam-Webster's 2006 Word Of The Year, and it was defined as:

truthiness (noun)

1 : "truth that comes from the gut, not books" (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," October 2005)
2 : "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true" (American Dialect Society, January 2006)

In a 2006 interview with The A.V. Club, Stephen Colbert said, "It used to be, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. But that's not the case anymore. Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything." (1)

Personally I disagree with Mr. Colbert. Facts matter to me a great deal. I certainly hope I am not alone. I don't want truthiness, and I don't want to be blissfully ignorant. If I am to make the best decision or form an intelligent opinion to persuade people, I need the facts, not some one's perception of the facts. Truthiness is just a new word for the old art of rhetoric and manipulation.

Sometimes the best school is the old-school. When listening to people, or reading opinions, I turn to logic to try to find out if I'm being manipulated. I recently read this by Tim Holt of logicalfallacies.info :

"The ability to identify logical fallacies in the arguments of others, and to avoid them in one’s own arguments, is both valuable and increasingly rare. Fallacious reasoning keeps us from knowing the truth, and the inability to think critically makes us vulnerable to manipulation by those skilled in the art of rhetoric."

So I am here to fight the apathy of my generation by fighting my own apathy. I'm here to say that I will not be manipulated, and I will not be lied to. Most importantly I want the facts, not truthiness.

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References

(1) http://www.avclub.com/content/node/44705

The Way Business Is Done

If you create more jobs in Manchester, you can extort the taxpayers and by-pass the living wage ordinance. I have to give credit to the owners of Vision Technical Molding and Advance Mold, they have taken advantage of a perfect storm to come out ahead. That storm is made up of a U.S. recession, Republicans in the majority, and Mohawk Cable (Belden, Inc.) closing its doors in Manchester and sending jobs to Mexico. I also have to give credit to the Manchester GOP. This is the first chance they’ve had to poke a hole in the Living Wage Ordinance that they voted against when it was enacted by the Democrats.

“Less than two weeks after local officials learned that the Mohawk Cable plant on Progress Drive was closing, town directors approved a tax abatement for two companies that suggested they, too, might close and move their operations out of the country.” (1)

According to the Hartford Courant article, this “suggestion” was made two days after the announcement of the closing of the Mohawk plant in a letter to the General Manager from one of the partners of the company. Is it just me, or does this sound something like this: give my company a tax abatement and let my company bypass the living wage ordinance or I will move my plant and lay-off 160 people. I’m asking myself, how is this not extortion?

Extort: to wrest or wring (money, information, etc.) from a person by violence, intimidation, or abuse of authority; obtain by force, torture, threat, or the like. (2)

In the business world, it isn’t called extortion, it’s called “leveraging your position.” I have no issue with businesses making money. It’s what they do. What I have a problem with is how this deal went down. It was introduced in an executive session of the April 1st BOD meeting. It was then added to the agenda for the second meeting of the month with no public announcement that the BOD agenda was revised. Now, when I was a teenager, and I tried slipping something under my parent’s nose, it was called, “pulling a fast one.” How is this open and accountable government?

In the end, the upside is that Vision Technical Molding and Advance Mold are creating fifteen new jobs now and fifteen more over the next year. Hopefully those jobs can go to people being laid-off at the Mohawk Cable plant. Those being laid-off should take advantage of the retraining being offered to get the skills they would need to work in an injection molding plant. Also, in seven years, Manchester will be able to add this company’s addition into the grand list.

The downside is that Manchester's taxpayers are footing the bill for $85,000 over the next seven years, and nineteen people at those plants will not be making the Manchester living wage of $11.40 per hour. Incidentally, a recently published study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition stated that a person would need to earn $18.64 per hour to have a modest two bedroom apartment in the Hartford area. (3) So those nineteen people will need to get a second job, or if they have a partner or spouse, they will have to work full time as well.

I’ve been laid off before. It’s very scary. I ask you this: Should businesses and town governments use that fear to their advantage? In this taxpayer’s opinion, it’s extortion, but that’s the way business has always been done.

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References:

(1) Uhlinger, Nick “Manchester Approves Tax Break For Two Companies” Hartford Courant 10 April 2008

(2) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/extort

(3) National Low Income Housing Coalition “Out of Reach” study. 2008

Welcome

“Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not YET sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.”

-Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

Welcome to the Silk City Independent. This will primarily be a political commentary blog containing the perspective of an Independent voter in Manchester, Connecticut. I research and weigh both sides of any issue, because the world is not black or white, Republican or Democrat, but many colors and shades; and in the case of Manchester, largely unaffiliated with a political party. In this writer’s opinion, the political climate in town has become increasingly divisive and partisan. It is time to add a voice from the greater percentage of voters in Manchester.

Do you know what the make up of Manchester is when it comes to voter registration? According to the Connecticut Secretary of State on Oct. 30, 2007 :

Republican	6,103	18.9%
Democrat	11,320	35.0%
Minor Party	257	0.8%
Unaffiliated	14,685	45.3%
Total	32,365	100.0%

If the Board of Directors, BOD, or Board of Education, BOE, were apportioned by voter registration, there would be two Republicans, three Democrats, and four Unaffiliated or Independents on each of the governments bodies in town.

Connecticut has been called the land of steady habits. I can’t argue with Mr. Paine’s thinking, “…a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT…” Political issues are almost always dependent on perspective. It is time to add a non-partisan, common sense perspectives to the dialog in Manchester.

Columns will be published on a minimum of a weekly basis. If you are a civic minded, unaffiliated voter in Manchester and would like to be a regular contributor, please leave a comment to let me know. Reader comments are welcomed; however, as with any publication, the editor reserves the right to moderate those comments.