What do we do when a neighbor is floundering and our neighborhood could help? Most people would help. What if other neighbors refuse to help because they’re angry with the one in trouble? What do we say to them? Luckily a poet, Edwin Markham, gave us these words: "He drew a circle that shut me out- Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle and took him In!” As neighbors of Wenatchee we face a call for help with the Town Toyota Center’s debt. << MORE >>

Karen and I were surprised to realize we retired ten years ago on June 30 in Portland Oregon. We figured we had a good 30 years ahead of us. Now we figure we have a good 25 years. We’ve done some things well and learned from many others. We started well. The first day we drove away from our rented condo, stopped for massages friends had gifted us and meandered east. We had few commitments. We were due at a retirement/birthday celebration hosted by our son in Moscow, a class reunion in Michigan, and caring for our granddaughter in Moscow in early August. Without our granddaughter we might still be heading east. In Denver a realtor called. He’d sold the Hood Canal waterfront where we considered retiring, leaving us free to locate wherever we wanted. When our granddaughter’s parents returned to relieve us, I told Karen the only reasonable choice for a home was the Spokane area. She said, “Keep looking.” A half-hour later Greater Wenatchee’s Chamber of Commerce website enticed us. We had to visit a community that could build an Apple Capital Loop Trail and new Performing Arts Center. The next morning we rolled past the promise of fiberoptics from Rock Island Dam, acres of apple orchards, parks on the Columbia River, a sign to Mission Ridge and a view of the North Cascades. We bought our condo in East Wenatchee a week later. We let our relaxed pace get hectic to the point where a friend insists we’re doing retirement with too much stress. Now I agree with him.<< MORE >>

How local citizens in Our Shoreline’s Future Vision Group performed is an equally important story compared to the report it submitted last week. I’m writing this story as a member of the group co-chaired by Eliot Scull, retired physician and environmentalist, and Mike Scott, orchardist and co-owner of Martin Scott Winery.<< MORE >>

A coalition of computer Data Centers and the City of Quincy named itself Washingtonneedsjobs and asked legislators to extend retail sales tax break on their capital equipment purchases for three years. They said give us the break and we’ll build millions of dollars of data centers and create new jobs. Don’t give it to us and we won’t build. You lose nothing but you gain jobs and taxes. The state had suspended sales taxes for 15 months and data centers were built. Nevertheless, the Speaker of the House refused to allow a vote on the bill. The request made sense to Quincy residents, local economic development authorities and legislators. Tax breaks made sense to the industry. Tax breaks make sense to every industry. Tax breaks make sense to every individual. Karen and I retired in Washington from Oregon, but I never thought to request tax breaks. We could have promised to invest our money here if the state wouldn’t charge us retail sales taxes for computers, cell phones, and routers for the first three years. The state wouldn’t lose any money because without the tax break, we wouldn’t come. Currently new retirees could say, “We’ll buy all these houses you have for sale.” The problem is new companies and people cost the state. << MORE >>

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.