Justice? Just us.

I’m not quite sure I know what it is anymore. It certainly isn’t tit for tat or eye for an eye, however logical that may seem. The culture of greed in this country has distorted what justice really means it would seem.

Recently a personal injury case I investigated go in front of jury, a case where common sense would dictate that an individual that caused their own accident and injuries, a person that did something wrong and ended up hurting themselves, would then be held responsible for their own actions. Apparently common sense is completely dead as a 12 person jury decided that even though this person caused their own accident they aren’t “really” responsible for their own actions and therefore are entitled to vast sums of money; oh and her husband gets money too because he alleged that because of the accident they weren’t able to act as husband and wife.

This verdict is shocking and shows the ineptitude of Americans and I am disgusted with them for it. They are probably all the same people that cry “socialism” and “Communism”, at President Obama but also feel large corporations should take care of the people, even when they are not at fault. So who’s creating the socialism now jerks?

I’ll admit that if an individual suffers a legitimate accident and there is an at fault party then they should offer some compensation to the injured party. It’s the decent thing to do. But it should be tempered with reason and accountability, not wild guesses about the moral duty of corporations to take care of the little guy who cut their finger while looking at a box of cookies. (Oh the humanity! How ever will that poor man survive this horrific ordeal....whimper, whimper)

Where’s the justice in that? When a jury awards a monster verdict to a person it affects us all. Stores or businesses have to raise prices to cover their bottom line, in some cases businesses have been forced to shut their doors. Who is that helping? It only helps the greedy person that could have had a few thousand dollars to take care of their hospital bills and put back at 100% pre-injury status but wants, nay, demands hundreds of thousands of dollars for their alleged, “peace of mind”.  Is that justice?

And why does this happen, because no one feels they have to take responsibility for their own actions. If I knock a box off a shelf and it hits me in the face, it’s my fault. Not anyone else's, I should have been more careful. But No, that’s just not the case anymore, no one is responsible for themselves, no personal accountability. It’s always someone else’s fault and that’s why America is so weak in the eyes of the world. We are complainers and soft bellied whiners who want everything without doing anything to earn it.  

I hope and pray that someday, common sense returns to the American Psyche and we start taking care of ourselves and responsibility for our own actions.  That would be amazing, then the world would really have to marvel at the Americans again, our roll up our sleeves and get the job done ethic would return and I bet the economy would stabilize and poverty would vanish. And maybe, just maybe a real sense of what justice is would return. Perhaps it’s a pipe dream, but it’s nice to dream.

A couple of items for Wednesday

I was very sad to hear the report that North America’s oldest elephant died recently. The elephant, named Taj, was an old circus elephant before spending the last 33 years at the Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, California. This is that elephant that learned how to paint and the paintings had been auctioned off for charity. I’m sure you’ve heard of that at least.  The elephant was 71 years old. So this elephant was older than America’s entry into WWII. I think that is just amazing.

I just think elephants are cool. They have wonderful attitudes and seem genuinely compassionate with others in their herd. Wild elephants are nothing to toy with for sure, they’ll trample you for snoring too loud, but in their own environment they have a seemingly ethereal quality. They appear to mourn their dead too, which is more than I can say for some humans.  And that brings me to my next item.

A 14 year old boy in South Carolina used a rifle given to him as a birthday present to shoot and kill his father and great-aunt and critically injury his grandmother. He calmly called police afterwards and gave himself up but has yet to offer any explanation to the murders.  I’m more than willing to bet there might be some severe psychological issues at play here, perhaps the family had been tormenting him for quite a while about his poor aim with a rifle and he finally just couldn’t take it anymore. I’ve seen Lifetime movies with worse plotlines. But the chilling thing is that the child has not had any explanation at all for his actions and his calm and concise manner of surrender to authorities just makes my skin crawl. I also would have thought arming your children was a bad thing, and I guess in this case it was.

Speaking of children, a 10 year old Romanian Gypsy girl has given birth in Spain. The father is a 13 year old Romanian boy. Now this kind of headline often spurs all kinds of horrified reactions, but let’s try to put it in perspective, how hot was this 10 year old? I’m kidding of course, but these Romanian Gypsies see nothing wrong with this as it is part of their culture for arranged marriages to start very young. I mean, that’s pretty young. When to girls start puberty these days anyway? The Spanish government is also in a difficult spot as their laws do ban such a union of minors, but the 13 year old boy is in Romania and there’s no way to prosecute him and according to the article I read, the 10 year old and 13 year old have broken up. There’s a joke here I know it but I just won’t steep to that level.

And finally, as follow up to a previous blog item, Mount Etna did erupt on Wednesday and lava did flow down the eastern rim. I know how worried all of you were and couldn’t wait to find out more. It is good to note that the volcano is still not threatening people or attempting to swindle billionaires out of their fortunes with complicated Ponzi Schemes.

All in all, the world keeps spinning and stuff keeps happening on this the third Wednesday of 2011.  So stay calm and don’t panic, we’ve yet to see what Thursday will bring.

We have the technology

At the company I work there has been a resistance to embrace new technologies that will make our jobs easier. Sadly I can understand why this is since most the alleged technological advancements we’ve received over the years have actually made more work. So I can understand some suspicion about anything new. However, a technology that is available to us is just not being utilized and it’s a shame because it’ll actually make the job so much simpler.

I’ve thrown my hat into the ring to try and coordinate the transition to this new technology. I don’t know if they’ll let me help since I’ve been labeled a malcontent.  I’ve only been labeled such since I’m the guy that always asks, “Why?”

If you just give me a valid reason for doing something I will do it.  If you just tell me to do something because that’s just how it is, I have a very hard time accepting it and will often resist. (I think I do that in my personal life to some degree as well, but that’s another article)

I hope the powers that be will give me the chance to make the job I do and that my colleagues do easier. I’d like the personal respect and pride that goes with making something like that happen. It’s not often in the business I’m in where you can shine independently.  And I like shining.

I think as technology improves most of the jobs we have that used to be buried in mountains of paperwork will finally be milled down into manageable on-line or e-mail based procedures, making the office itself almost irrelevant. That would be pretty nice. Imagine a world where no one really had to commute to work because everything they needed to get there job done was right at their fingertips.

I think that’ll be quite impressive. I look forward to a future in which the immediate recall of information is available anywhere. It’s so close at it is with the Smart Phones and wi-fi and tablet computers. It’s simply amazing what the future holds and if I can stamp my name on that in some way it would be remarkable.

I think this might be my nerdiest blog so far. What happened to me?

The Honorable Martin Luther King Jr. and Chicago

In 1966 Martin Luther King Jr. moved his family in to a rotten apartment on Chicago’s West Side.  He moved in to protest the poor conditions of the public housing in that area and to end the rule of the slum lords.  During that time he led several peace marches through mostly White neighborhoods to call attention the disparity. I’m sad to say that a lot of those Whites did not exactly conduct themselves well. Mr. King was actually struck in the head by a brick that was thrown at him during one of the Marches. It has been reported that the marchers received worse treatment in Chicago than they had in the South.

Eventually Richard J. Daley and Dr. King reached an agreement ending the marches and promises were made to promote fair housing practices. Unfortunately the first Daley administration didn’t keep their promises and very little was ever done.

I’m quite proud to be a Chicagoan, but sometimes I have to shake my head at the history of this city. I think these days we consider ourselves to pretty cosmopolitan and liberal. Look at the rally for President Obama; I think we might have come quite a-ways in 45 years. But there are certainly sore spots in our past that have been slightly forgotten.

I am glad however that Dr. King’s message of peace has not been forgotten. If ever there was a man more deserving of a Peace Prize, it was Dr. King.  I would hope that his message of unity and peace will continue to flourish in these hard times and we never forget his legacy.

I often wonder what Dr. King would think of the present. I wonder if he’d simply be a man for the rights of the poor more than the rights of any one race over the other. I’d like to think that he’d be proud of the progress that has been made, but he’d recognize there was still a lot of work to be done.

I hope we can continue his work and remember that naked aggression has never solved anything. It has almost always made things more complicated or worse for all involved. Non-violent, passive resistance that appeals to the true generous nature of human kind is usually the only way to illicit lasting change.  Compromise is always a viable result in any disagreement and it shouldn’t be feared as an alternative to a long lasting fracas.

Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day everybody. And Peace be with you.

An open letter to the drunk

Stop it. Just stop it. You’re being a ridiculous idiot. No one is going to fix your life except you, so stop crying in your martini. Why did you order a martini anyway? You’ve already complained several times how strong it is. 

So you’re upset that your husband left you and you simply can’t understand why. You’re at the bar, drinking, looking for answers in a situation you can easily change. Yet, you’re compelled to tell all of us all about it but won’t listen to any sage bar advice.

Not that our lives are perfect by any stretch of the imagination. We’ve all got problems but we resist the urge to purge the contents of our misery on the bar top for the cat to lick up. We’ve got some level of decency in us. Mind you, it’s only a minor level of decency, but it’s there.

I’ve never met someone so obstinate about their own position in life, blaming God for the condition they’ve found themselves in. No amount of religious reasoning will slow your hog like snorting and crying. I say hog like because of your incredible continual rummaging and rooting through the trash of your life, finding the nuggets of hell you are only too happy to share.   We look at you with pity and try to offer understanding, but because you blame God, you can’t see your life is in your own hands. It’s infuriating.

So Stop it. Just stop it. Yeah, have a Mai Tai, that’ll fix it.

Volcano Thursday

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/01/13/italy.volcano/index.html?hpt=T2

It would seem Mt. Etna is getting upset. Although my favorite part of the above article is where it says the volcano has yet to threaten any people. I imagine the volcano holding a gun to a bunch of tourists and demanding their wallets. 

I think it’s quite appropriate for there to be a massive volcanic eruption right now. Think about it, there’s been massive bird and fish deaths, flooding all over the world, continued horrors for Haiti, why not throw a lava flow on top of all that. If I were one of those, “End of Days”, type people I might be a little nervous. But I’m not.

The planet is essentially a living thing and like all living things they go through changes. Not like Earth puberty or anything, although hearing Earth’s voice change would probably be hilarious.  Earth is a little too old for puberty at 4.5 billion years old; unless in universe time that is the “teens”.  Then we’re in for some late nights wondering where the car is and why Earth’s room smells so bad. (Oh man, he left a plate on the floor with a half eaten sandwich on it, ewwwww!)

No I don’t think the world is coming to an end. Throughout human history there have been premonitions of the world’s demise and they’ve all been wrong, every single time. While we don’t know how close we’ve actually come to total annihilation, our still being here is proof enough of their error.

I do think that Planet Earth might be a little upset with us however. Not in the sense that we’ve been naughty and need a time out. In the sense that we have upset the natural balance, the natural order if you will. I think a lot of these intense weather incidents and environmental changes are the direct result of our selfish use of the planet and failure to recognize it as a living thing. But I don’t think we cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions; that would just be silly. That’s all plate tectonics and such and we have very little to do with continental shifting.  Unless those neighbor kids were successful in secretly tunneling to China by digging in the yard.

I do hope that Mt. Etna does not explode violently as the Krakatoa eruptions on August 26–27, 1883. That volcanic explosion was the loudest sound ever in human history. It was heard as far away as Australia, about 1,930 miles away from Indonesia.  It was a massive eruption and luckily, because of its remoteness, there were only a few deaths. I certainly hope Mt. Etna is not as destructive as Mt. Vesuvius was to the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Now that was Biblical devastation.

On a more local level, I hope Mt. Thursday’s mood stays calm and we can get through the day without any massive eruptions. I might have to sacrifice a virgin to the volcano gods though. Crap, I don’t know any virgins. Any volunteers?

Bar Heart

I thought of that the other day while talking with a friend of mine. Bar Heart. Seemed like a good book title or something. I had mentioned it to my good friend because a bar very close to my heart has re-opened in a slightly different incarnation. I spent a solid ten years at the old Red Lion Pub on Lincoln Avenue and it opened up a wonderful world of what a public house should be.  The owners closed it to begin some reconstruction projects a little more than three years ago and the regulars and I were tossed to the four winds.  Sadly that original bar has not been able to re-open.

Every other week the regulars would find themselves in a temporary bar thankfully provided by Joe and the Dank Haus. This helped keep our ragtag group of Red Lion Refugees together.  But it just wasn’t the same. We were together but still apart. As if the galaxy had somehow decided to leave us behind.

We had no choice but to find new locals to spend all of our time in. We were lost in a world of crowded and TV infused bars, crushed by overbearing sound systems and the screams of newly drunk 21 year olds. Not that these temporary bars are bad, they just weren’t The Red Lion. It’s difficult to have an intelligent conversation with someone over the blare of Lady Gaga or Journey for the eighth time in a night. (I’m sure my current bartender will not be too pleased to hear that, but like I told her, she has my head the Red Lion has my heart). I’m happy to have made the friends I have at the bars I’ve been to since The Red Lion’s closure. I don’t regret any of it and I’ll continue to go and laugh and joke and make a general nuisance of myself. I wouldn’t change it for anything.

But now, Joe of the old Red Lion has taken it upon himself to reinvigorate our souls with the opening of The Red Lion Lincoln Square. He opened mid-December and already the universe seems to have realigned somehow.  The first week the old regulars and I entered the new place we were filled with a peace and joy only that could only be compared to a homecoming after a long period of service overseas. (Not that I’m equating military service in Afghanistan or Iraq to missing a Pub, but I think you get my drift).  

We sat at the new bar, lamenting at the temporary (fingers crossed) BYOB status of the place, but eminently pleased with it reappearance. It was then the thought of a “Bar Heart” crept into my mind. A place where, no matter how many other places you’ve been is the one most special to you. It’s special to a lot of us for different reasons; some met their wives there, some grew up there, some people finally felt they had a place that they understood and understood them.  A place where conversation ruled and the worst thing you could do was get into a fist fight over former Senator Paul Simon.

We’ve always known it wasn’t the building that we loved, but it was the fact that we, as regulars, were together and it was always “US” that made it what it was. I’m happy that the building is back, but I’m happier we have a place to enjoy each other company again. “I’ll drink to that”, said my beating Bar Heart.  

http://www.urbandaddy.com/chi/food/12199/Red_Lion_Lincoln_Square_Red_Lion_Sets_Up_in_Lincoln_Square_Chicago_CHI_Ravenswood_Restaurant