As Karen and I recently cruised Russian waterways from Moscow to St Petersburg, Russians joked that they have three problems unlike the U.S., which has two. Both have national problems and international problems, but Russians have government problems. We think we have government problems, but Russians our age tell of horrific government problems. The Russians’ humor helps them survive and lifted our spirits. My grandparents told stories of struggling to raise children in the early 1900s, but their grandparents lived when Russian military ineptitude that killed millions of people in two unpopular wars. The Communist Party’s revolution in 1918 plunged the country into a chaotic civil war. Lenin policies improved the national economy but he imposed police suppression. Ivanov is a humorous Russian character whose loose lips regularly imprison him. After Lenin died, 100,000 factories were closed and wreathes hung on their gates. Ivanov said, “For that much money they could bury the whole party.”<< MORE >>

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) offers current U.S. citizens a meaningful way to work with permanent legal immigrants who want to become citizens. The co-owner and editor of El Mundo Gustavo Montoya partners with the USCIS to promote citizenship because he values his naturalized citizenship. “If you live here as a permanent legal resident and want to stay here, then why not become a citizen and take responsibility? Everybody in the community can support that idea.” The partnership has produced such a demand that volunteers are teaching classes in English in nine churches, schools, and other organizations in East Wenatchee and Chelan County. I’ve volunteered and recommend your support and participation. The USCIS path to citizenship has three steps: eligibility, application and ceremony.<< MORE >>

Larry Wharton, an intellectual provocateur and former educational colleague of mine, blogged that he is distraught because heated dialogue in our nation cripples critical thinking and stifles action. He believes we should teach critical thinking beginning in high school, but we must have an essential set of shared national values that will guide our critical thinking on policy issues.

By critical thinking he means we are able to evaluate proposed national policies against a set of shared values, and then choose policies that fulfill those values. I propose seven values: life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, justice, health, domestic tranquility and common defense.

Wharton warns values may be ignored in policy debates by obstacles to effective critical thinking. Two barriers are the way we mishandle information. We treat new data as confirming what we already believe, and ignore sources that are too biased. Most of us accept news from confirmatory TV channels from hundreds of possibilities.

Two other obstacles are our personalities and motivations. Some prefer people values, while others abide by theoretical principles. Finally motivators may be disruptive by driving some to control, while others prefer to participate.

Education could make us aware of these obstacles and acknowledge them, helping us understand and listen to different perspectives.

There are two unconscious obstacles that may freeze our positions: fear and certainty. Whatever the reasons behind each, they both interfere with democratic processes on which our republic is founded. Our republic requires that from time-to-time we live with decisions that ramp up our fears or injure our egos. 

So given Wharton’s ambitious educational drive to overcome those limitations, he requests our five enduring values for our nation.  I reread our Declaration of Independence and US Constitution to distill an underlying set from our founding heroes.

First is the famous, “All [people] are created equal, with … rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  

The Constitution’s Preamble declares its purpose as: “To form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare (at that time welfare was defined as health, happiness or prosperity, or in one word, well-being), and secure the blessings of liberty.

These values summarize into life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, justice, health, domestic tranquility and common defense. There are seven, but far be it from me to eliminate two values from the framers of our great nation.

For comparisons I found two organizations that stress values-based critical thinking. The American Values Network incorporates faith-based debate on moral issues in “preserving our values and heightening awareness of the key ingredients required for a prosperous society.”

The organization produced a Moral Values survey of US citizens in 2006 asking how people vote their values. The most frequent national values were eliminating poverty, guaranteeing access to health care and protecting personal freedoms and individual choices. Our founders’ seven cover them under life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, justice and health.

The second source I found was American Solutions. Their values begin with the Declaration of Independence statement. They emphasize individual actions guided by thought and moral conscience and a duty to take personal responsibility. Government’s role is to protect those rights with free enterprise and incentives as opposed to regulation and bureaucracy. The founders included these values under life, liberty, pursuit of happiness and insuring domestic tranquility.

The framers of our federal government explicitly wrote seven values into our Declaration of Independence and constitution. The values are life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, justice, health, domestic tranquility and common defense. Let’s learn how to limit policy debates to evaluate a policy’s ability to fulfill those seven values. 

In 2001 the Congressional Budget Office, the independent budget office for Congress, forecast that existing federal budget surpluses would create a projected surplus of $2.3 trillion over the ten years to 2011. Currently a $1.6 trillion dollar budget deficit is forecast for 2011 alone. In 2001 the CBO forecast we could use those projected surpluses to pay off the nation’s debts by 2011. In 2011 we have no plan to pay off $10 trillion in debt. We need to know where the money went so we can get serious about deficit reduction.

The PEW Foundation’s Fiscal Analysis Initiative concluded more than half of the money disappeared with Bush tax cuts. Another twenty-five percent went toward wars and Obama’s stimulus.

The 2001 tax breaks were sold on fiscal policy faith that cutting the wealthy’s taxes would increase investments in jobs, leading to higher tax revenue. Reagan began that policy, Bush promoted it and Rep Ryan repeats it. Don’t believe it.

                 Both David A. Stockman, Reagan’s budget director, and Joseph Stiglitz, a Pulitzer Prize winning economist, say the “Trickle Down Theory” didn’t work. Jobs weren’t created and current tax revenue plunged to the smallest percent of our economy in 60 years.

                 Instead the policy enabled the wealthy to speculate in financial markets with low interest rates and keep profits with low capital gains taxes. They increased their assets and annual income.

                 The policy slammed the middle class. They found fewer jobs and watched their assets and income stagnate or decline. Undaunted, they kept spending and loaded up on consumer and home debt, which transferred their wealth to financial speculators.

                 Consequently middle and lower income groups confront limited opportunities. They head for retirement with smaller savings and lower home equities. Rep. Ryan’s budget plan would increase their Medicare costs dramatically. Younger generations struggle with debt and unemployment. Sadly, promises of lower income taxes could give them false hopes.   

                Obama’s deficits plan taxes only the rich to repair the policy driven divide. Stockman and others point out social security reform requires tax increases and the proposal is too optimistic about Medicare and Medicaid savings. But Obama promised not to tax middle and lower incomes and backtracking on no-tax promises has been politically fatal.

                Both sides promise to dialogue. But a principle-driven, inaccurate exchange of rich-versus-poor clichés might delay action until after 2012, with each party hoping for total power. Our problem would be worse and neither party may win a majority.

                External forces may not permit waiting that long. Interest costs may go up to attract buyers if central banks buy less debt. The central bank of Japan must rebuild earthquake-damaged infrastructure. China must control inflationary pressures. The fed plans to stop buying bonds to keep interest rates low.

Other financial organizations are increasing pressure. Pimco, a premier bond investment fund, is investing to drive rates up. Standard & Poors said if Congress doesn’t get serious in two years, it might cut the debt rating. If Standard & Poors, or other rating agencies are serious, they should act now. Then Congress and Obama would get serious. 

The Council for Economic Development, a nonpartisan policy research group of business and university leaders, said the fiasco of almost shutting down the federal government over a pittance of budget cuts was a charade they called, “the definition of non-seriousness.” The Council recommended all sides put everything on the table. 

Other organizations need to increase the pressure, such as the US Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers. They have clout – their organizations enjoy a trillion dollars worth of tax credits and exemptions that need serious review. 

So ignore idealistic budget debates, watch for increases in treasury rates and urge organizations to increase pressure. A solution must be found, sooner rather than later. 

                The Pediocactus nigrispinus (neeg-re-spine-us) flowers are pink, magenta, yellow or yellow-green, and bloom briefly in mid-April in Grant County. Fruit is green tinged with red, but dries to reddish brown.  It has tiny seeds. Nigrispinus is controversial and shouldn't be mistaken for the Pediocactus simpsonii, according to Dixie Dringman of Rock Island.

On April 17 Dixie led her annual trek to see Pediocactus nigrispinus bloom. Twelve of us met at the gate leading to its habitat in public and private shrub steppe where Dixie has permission to tread.

One visitor was Jay Akerley from Vancouver, B.C, who wanted to view the plant in its native habitat. Akerley, who completed horticulture training at Glendale Gardens to compliment his BA in geography from Simon Fraser University, maintains both plants in a zeriscape garden near Princeton, Canada with more than 100 different species of cold hardy cacti. He’s published online photographs and articles. He said, “Oh yes, they are very different plants.”

So why is there a controversy, or as Dixie emailed me, “Who would have ever thought a …cactus could raise so much malcontent and snootiness?”

My search confirmed nigrispinus isn’t identified by some Washington agencies, including the Washington Native Plant Society. The WNPS does a wonderful job of plant education and protection, and collects plant lists shared voluntarily by observers around Washington. WNPS’ list for Grant County has 708 species compiled Don Knoke in 2004, but not nigrispinus. The only Pediocactus is the simpsonii. That’s probably nigrispinus.

The controversy stems from WNPS’ currently recommended field guide to identify plants by family and subspecies, the Flora of the Pacific Northwest by C. Leo Hitchcock and Arthur Cronquist, 1973. Hitchcock classified nigrispinus as a simpsonii.

Dixie says, “He never took the time to walk the basalt litho-soils in eastern Washington and see for himself that the two Pediocactus not only grew in completely different environments, but also were in fact completely different types. It remained for others to try to correct the wrongs but it has proved to be a difficult job.”

Dixie began relentlessly twenty years ago when she learned people were uprooting them and selling them in flea markets. She’s stopped those sales with the help of others, but not WNPS.

                She invited internationally recognized experts such as Fritz Hochstaetter and Bill Beaston whose fascination with the plant led to repeated visits. They convinced Dixie of the difference and they’ve collaborated since. “These experts all left convinced that the Pediocactus here were definitely NOT simpsonii or robustior.  Changes were made to the nomenclature to a …variant of robustior, … so things are at least moving in the right direction.”

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Plants Data Base lists 26 Pediocactus, one of which is the Pediocactus simpsonii with variation of robustior. Akerley disagrees. “Nigrispinus is definitely not robustior, either.” 

The Washington Natural Heritage Program Plant Field Guide lists Pediocactus nigrispinus, the snowball cactus. Dixie says the snowball cactus is a Pediocactus simpsonii. At least nigrispinus is in one Washington document.

Akerley was thrilled with the trip. He picked up a dead nigrispinus with green tissue at its apex, already separated from its roots. His Facebook page says, “I found about 20 seeds. I grafted about 20 tubercle cuttings onto Opuntia fragilis [prickly pear] stock for my garden.”

Dringman revels in the controversy. Without a degree in botany, she’s been very successful. “I [have] become well known and [have] gained a reputation from my internationally published articles and actual fieldwork as an expert on Pediocactus nigrispinus by this time.”

And she's championed a beautiful small cactus being uprooted for resale and trampled under indifference because of ignorance. She has clear skies common sense and uncommon determination.

 

There is serious doubt in my mind whether college education is a wise investment given the downward slopes of economic prosperity and public support for higher education. Policies to erect more cost barriers would reduce aspirations of younger generations and impede our country’s job growth.

Reports claim that college graduates have higher earnings and employment rates than high school graduates without degrees. The reports come from respectable sources such as the College Board, a non-profit association of schools and colleges, and degreeadvantage.com, a promotional organization for online schools. The reports don’t tell the full truth, and degreeadvantage’s report is based on 1997-99 data.

Several years ago, professor Laurence Kotlikoff of Boston University began studying economic benefits using realistic costs. He included tuition, room and board, textbooks, materials, lost income for four years, interest costs and opportunity costs of debt. His cost estimates appear low because 57% of students take six years to graduate. He also included long-term impacts of taxes, spending and savings patterns after college, in middle age, and during retirement.

Surprisingly, economic benefits were only 10% higher. In later work he concluded that given a student’s innate abilities, the extra investment in a high priced, private institution does not offer an economic payback compared to a lower cost public education.

Even a 10% return could be wiped out by cost barriers public officials are erecting: (1) raising tuition faster than inflation, (2) lowering financial aid grants, (3) limiting investment incentives and (4) enabling steeper debt loads.

College tuition in Washington is scheduled to rise much faster than inflation, even as slots for residents decline in favor of out-of-state students. Recent studies reported increased enrollments in costlier private schools. And US Rep Ryan’s budget proposal, purported to be the 2012 Republican platform, cuts Pell grants for need-based students. 

Budget proposals cutting student grants runs counter to economic sense. Ryan’s assumptions are (1) we have a spending problem and (2) we need to invest for job growth. While I agree we have a spending problem (we also have a revenue problem), the problem is wasted spending that doesn’t develop people and infrastructure.

We should invest for job growth, but cutting aid to education reduces job growth. Employers demand high skilled candidates, yet an estimated 200,000 people per year do not attend college or technical schools because of high costs. Skilled graduates supply employers with incentives to create jobs locally rather than overseas.

Savings plans help cut student costs, but public policies minimizing interest rates limit returns on savings. In 2009 forty percent of students borrowed on student loans. Fortunately, Washington’s legislators have abandoned plans to impair investment in our GET program, and instead moved to strengthen it.

Student debt is a pernicious roadblock to job growth. In March 2011 the Institute for Higher Education Policy issued a report about the 1.8 million students who began repaying loans in September 2005. More than two out of five borrowers became delinquent by September 2009. Those borrowers faced damage credit scores, increased debt and higher interest payments. All of those problems restrict consumption, which restricts job growth.

With forty percent of students borrowing to pay for college, the IHEP said debates about total costs for college must “include the causes and consequences of delinquency … to improve borrowers’ experiences, enhance the student loan program, save taxpayers’ money, and perhaps contribute more broadly to higher education as a whole.”

We need to invest more in higher education, not less, and must find the revenues so we can wisely invest in people and job growth.

               As a young, white, MBA director of a community development organization in 1975, I couldn’t understand why Nick was elected president of his 250-member bakery union. He showed me and he’s a model for our times.

               Unquestionably he was a leader. Union members re-elected him twice without opposition. Managers said he was the key to building trust at the plant.

Yet he didn’t fit the union leadership mold in our racially tense rural Michigan city. Two thirds of his members were white, but his skin was deep black without a soothing blue luster. He came from Alabama with an inherited distrust of whites and a southern drawl. He stuttered so miserably I couldn’t look him in the eye and felt foolish looking at his feet while I concentrated on what he said.

One time I offered him a conference pamphlet. His hands didn’t move. He nodded toward it and said, "Wh.. wh.. why don.. don't you t..t..t..t..tell me wh… wh.. it says?"

He puffed up my importance. He wanted to hear from me, but I suspected he was illiterate. I never saw him read a word, nor did I offer him any.

We met because community leaders pleaded with labor and management to build better relationships after seven bitter strikes over 13 months.

The bakery’s union and management, along with other companies, agreed to form an in-plant committee led by community mediators to solve non-bargaining issues in a collaborative style.

Nick wanted me to mediate. He told me he wanted to improve safety. The plant manager wanted to improve operations. I didn’t know anything about either issue, but they locked me into my first mediation.

We jointly established guidelines for six meetings, set an agenda, and agreed on a date. That didn’t seem hard.

It got harder. The personnel manager called and said I had to come over immediately.

She was distraught because Nick was unreasonable. Two managers had forgotten they had tickets and reservations for a bakery conference that conflicted with the next meeting. She’d asked Nick to reschedule, but he refused. 

Nick, a committee member and I huddled in a men’s bathroom just off the shop floor. Nick went right to the point, "D.. da … does this m.. m.. mm. mean they’re n.. no..  not c.. c..  committed?"

I was relieved. Absolutely not, I said. The managers blew it. They agreed without checking their calendars. His eyes bored into me. "D…d …do they d… d….  do this all the t ..t…time?"

His question opened a window into his world. No calendar, no notes, no lists ruled his life. He ruled it with his inviolate word. He’d given it to managers and members. He’d keep it.

I did my best explaining why managers, including me, rescheduled all the time. He was really asking if he could trust their word. I was thinking, ‘Not as deeply as they could trust yours.’

The rescheduled meeting and others improved plant conditions with suggestions from both sides. After my last mediation, Nick and committee members said good-bye and left. Managers lingered behind. Almost in unison they said, "Did you hear it?"  "Yes, did you hear it?"

"Hear what?"

"Nick said things were better!" said one. The rest nodded their heads.

"Well, yes I remember that."

They could see I didn't get it.

"He has never said anything positive."

We’d all felt the same improved feelings. They’d heard it from others. But now the managers believed it.

Nick's word, pure as a priceless black pearl, made it so.

May my word, and every promise I hear and read, be half as pure.  

The legislature is dimming and raising hopes for students interested in college education. Students face increasing tuition rates and reduced access, such as fewer state student offered positions in favor of more out-of-state students at the University Washington this spring.

 The legislature could raise hopes to cut costs by passing a bill to establish an online university based in Washington, the Western Governor’s University—Washington. The bill, HB1822/SB5136, “directs the Higher Education Coordinating Board to recognize and endorse online, competency based education, and integrate the academic programs of [WGU-Washington] into state policy and strategy.”

WGU offers baccalaureate and masters degrees in education, business, information technology and health services. Its motto is online, accelerated, affordable, and accredited.

It was established in 1997 by agreement among 19 governors, including former governor Mike Lowry. It earned accreditation in 2001 and now has 24,000 students and agreements with 30 states.

It’s ramping up growth by forming partnerships to establish state branches. Indiana governor Mitchell Daniels approved WGU-Indiana as its “eighth state university” and approved state-funded financial aid for Indiana residents.

The university assembles courses by purchasing curriculum from online resources and publishing materials. Competencies are established for each course and students must pass all courses to earn degrees.

WGU accepts only 37 percent of its applicants and more than 75 percent are on financial aid. Students average 36-years-of-age. Typically they’re working as teacher aides with a desire to earn a teaching degree, office worker earning a degree in business, or a health services employee earning a medical degree. They’re getting more competent as they serve you and me.

Students enroll in online courses to complete assignments, communicate with mentors, and view video lectures. One complaint I’ve read is that students must learn how to maneuver through the different technology tools in each course.

A faculty mentor is assigned to each student. Online blogs say most mentors are great but some students have, or hear, horror stories about mentors. Students have horror stories at every school I’ve taught in or attended. I’m probably in some of those horror stories.

The WGU competency standard requires students perform at a “B” grade level or fail. If students believe they already competent, they can pay for the course, and pass the competencies immediately.

A year’s tuition and fees for four-year teaching and business degrees are a flat rate of $5,780, more than a community college and less than our state universities. Overall costs for a degree are far less because graduates earn the degrees in 2.5 years instead of the average five years in four-year universities. Plus, WGU students avoid expenses for room and board at the university.

The school offers a quality education. President Mendenhall reports employer and graduate satisfaction rates greater than 95 percent. The most recent rankings from the Online Education Data Based Rankings (http://oedb.org/rankings) rated WGU the 11^th best university of 44 online universities and the highest online-only university. Student retention from 2007 shows 78 percent retention from 2006 to 2007. Harvard Business school reviewers recently reported WGU has done the best job of any non-profit in using technology to transform higher education.

In February concerns about WGU were voiced in the House, causing both Representative Armstrong and Condotta to vote against it. Concerns included equating competency programs with traditional curriculum, lack of face-to-face meetings and the availability of current online courses.

Kurt Hammond, from Rep. Condotta,’s office said, “There was concern from our side of the aisle that we were picking one university to give a state seal of approval. Why them versus some other school?”

Despite the concerns, the bill passed the House with bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition 70-26 and is now in the senate. The concerns deserve consideration, but shrinking opportunities for Washington students, the need for qualified workers and the increasing costs trump the concerns for this high-quality school.

Support WGU-Washington for Washington newest quality university. Urge Sen. Parlette to support it.

The political tension in this country might be eased with a comprehensive strategy involving pets, particularly dogs. I base this idea on my own medical experience after reading research on the value of pets to relieve emotional stress.

My cardiomyopathy, specifically a myocardial infarction where my heart pumps alarmingly less blood and oxygen to my lungs than necessary, needs treatments to heal it. Treatments include medications and nutritional supplements. My most enjoyable treatment is our new pet dog, Haley.

My most difficult task is reducing stress and anger. I follow politics in the news, and allow infuriating political shenanigans to irritate me.

Last weekend I let stress build as we felt the pressure our children experience from tight incomes. Our daughter with three boys keeps searching for the possibility of owning a home on her teacher’s salary. Our oldest son faces a fourth consecutive year of a frozen salary as a faculty member.

Both of them face college tuition in five to seven years, and Washington legislators propose to raise those costs even faster than they’ve been rising. In the back of my mind was the legislation in Wisconsin that restricted teachers’ collective bargaining rights and rolled back their benefits. Could it happen in Washington? Potential governor Rob McKenna already is responding to people asking that question by insisting he doesn’t support Wisconsin’s approach.

Frustrated with my children’s burdens, I was upset more by reading about the experience of Prof. William Cronan, an economics and history professor at the University of Wisconsin. Paul Krugman reported Cronan researched and published an opinion piece on the work of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that has been operating for 40 years to promote conservative legislation.

Cronan has made two points. Political dialogue in Wisconsin has turned bitter compared to its history of “decent respect” between the parties. He also pointed out ALEC has not experienced a media analysis that would make its role in legislation more transparent. Cronan’s reputation comes from doing excellent research. He is the incoming president of the American Historical Association.

Attacks have begun. Cronan was immediately hit with a freedom of information act on emails on his university computer. Instead of responding to debates, he’s responding to requests for his email trails. 

At 7:00 pm on March 27 a student blogger in journalism at the University of Wisconsin published an editorial supporting Cronan and Krugman. Almost immediately the article began receiving four detailed comments from one person, “Guest,” who promoted conservative responses. His criticisms dealt with side comments in the student’s editorial, but none deal with the transparency and desire for civility preferred by Cronan. Nor does “Guest” deal with the chilling effect of these responses instead of debating them. No one else commented. I checked Guest’s profile, and nothing was revealed. Who is Guest, and where’s the transparency?

My stress swirled toward anger, but I headed it off by petting Haley. We got her recently because pet dogs have a long history of reducing stress in humans, beginning with the late 1800s when they improved socials lives of patients in mental hospitals.

That’s when an idea hit me. Would politically friendly social skills improve if we introduced pet dogs into Congress, governor’s offices and legislatures?  Before debating bills and reading the constitution, leaders would have to pet or walk their dogs for fifteen minutes.

Otherwise, I'll stay committed to writing about decent social behavior under clear skies and walking and petting my dog. Haley loves and socializes easily. She makes me believe is still possible for us to do.

The Sendai disaster reminds us caring for loved ones comes first. Over thousands of years our species has learned how to survive on this deadly planet. This is my story of learning from the disaster. In the back of mind was, what about my family along the Oregon and Washington coasts? How do we plan for what we don’t expect? The story begins over 30 years ago when we hosted exchange student Yukie Miyata from northern Japan. We’ve stayed in touch through Facebook while she teaches in Canada. Suddenly Facebook friends asked if she was OK. Just before the earthquake, she’d posted from Japan when she arrived to see her mother, father and sister. Twenty-four hours later a friend reported, “Just talked to Yukie via Skype, they are all safe, a little shaken.” Does all of my family have Skype? She posted after the Internet came back on briefly. “People are panicking here.” << MORE >>