Category Archives: Civics

About the city of Newburyport, MA, the people who live here, and the actions and the events that effect their lives.

Wind Energy and Governing

Although it is laudable that we in Newburyport, MA have an individual–company that is on the cutting edge of clean energy, it is also up to our Newburyport governing bodies not to be advocates for any one agenda, but to understand the pulse of the entire city of Newburyport, MA and to govern accordingly, which almost always, when successful, means balance and compromise.

So my thoughts are that when Mr. Richey may have approached whoever about the large wind turbine now on his property in Newburyport’s Industrial Park, that it might have been prudent for our elected Newburyport officials to say something to the effect, “We are thrilled to have someone as committed to clean and green energy as you are, however, our constituency might not be ready for such a radical move (i.e. a 292 foot wind turbine near a residential area); why not start out “low and go slow,” with wind turbines that may not pack as close to a high voltage punch, but are more in balance with a residential community.”

The buck stops with the Newburyport City Council.

And in looking back at the Newburyport Blog, in November of 2007, I expressed a concern about “fastening our seat belts,” because things were really going to move with this particular Newburyport City Council in place.

And concerning wind energy, things have really zoomed, and as a result, things may really backfired. One giant step forward, and possibly many giant steps backwards.

One of my favorite sayings is, “Baby steps get you to the top of the mountain.”

And as far as wind energy goes, there are several “baby steps” that could be taken. There are a number of wind energy products that are now being fast tracked, in response to the same conflict that we in Newburyport, MA are experiencing.

Quietrevolution hopes to have its vertical wind turbine product in 4 different sizes by late 2009 and 2010. The product was featured on MNBC here.

Windspire is a 30 foot by 2 foot vertical wind turbine featured at the Inauguration that has now been fast-tracked. The company was able to retrofit a former auto parts factory in Michigan and high volume production is planned for April 2009.

These are just two examples of wind turbine products, that yes, are not anywhere close to being as high voltage as the example that we currently have, but do wrestle with the issues that concern Newburyport citizens.

I would urge our Newburyport City Council to rethink a long term Newburyport wind energy policy, and not be wedded to an “either-or” approach, but in future, to urge citizens and business to take a more tempered and balanced direction.

Newburyport Wind Backlash

I know what it is like to work on a Newburyport civic project, to be completely committed to a Newburyport civic project for years, and then have an incredible Newburyport public backlash. It’s not fun.

So I understand how our elected and civic Newburyport officials might feel, working on the Wind Energy Conversion Ordinance that made the current 292 foot wind turbine in Newburyport’s Industrial Park possible, and how the backlash (which is significant) could also make them feel.

My first reaction to a very vocal Newburyport public backlash was that people just didn’t understand, that this was a solution to a very complex problem and that people would come around.

Not only did most people not come around, but the project was derailed, lost funding, may be put off for decades, that civic employment was lost, and a significant amount of distrust from the public still lingers on.

And the sense that I get from folks who have worked hard on the Newburyport Wind Energy Ordinance that made the 292 foot Newburyport wind turbine possible, is that they might feel, in someway, the way I felt–i.e. very much committed and wedded to the concept.

Please, if possible, learn from my experience. It’s really hard to let go of something that has so much passion and reason behind it. But if another huge wind turbine would be put up in Newburyport’s Industrial Park, my guess is that the pitchforks might come out with even more force. My sense is that the Newburyport Wind Energy Ordinance has the potential of causing an even greater fissure within the city of Newburyport, MA if another industrial size wind turbine would be erected.

And the very, very good news is that we have a mandate from the President of the Untied States to make wind energy work. That communities all over the globe are experiencing the same conflict that Newburyport, MA is–an ambivalence about having an industrial size wind turbine near a populated area. All kinds of incredibly innovative ideas are in the works and being funded to make wind energy that is more effective and more in scale with the cities and towns in which we live.

So I would urge the Newburyport City Council to be open to rethinking the Wind Energy Ordinance that will be discussed in a public meeting this Tuesday, March 31 at 7PM at City Hall Auditorium.

Making sure that we as a city have the trust of the citizens of Newburyport, MA could be essential in making sure Newburyport, MA has long term, vibrant and viable wind energy projects.

Residential Wind Turbines

In thinking about wind turbines and scale and balance for our historic Newburyport, MA city, it seemed to me that we would not be the only place feeling somewhat conflicted about having huge wind turbines in residential areas (vast understatement).

And we now have a president who A) believes in science and B) thinks clean-green energy is a good thing, and is rigorously promoting wind energy. So why wouldn’t President Obama’s administration want to address the issue of smaller wind turbines for populated areas. Great entrepreneurial potential, huge market, lots of jobs.

And in a brief Google of small residential wind turbines, there are lots of folks beginning to wrestle with a solution.

We’ve had antennas on historic Newburyport roofs for many, many years. It would not be so far fetched to imagine effective wind turbines on a residential scale in years (who knows, months?) to come. So down the line there maybe a compromise between huge 300 foot wind turbines and something more manageable wind-wise for a Newburyport historic place.

An Obama-time, Obama-moment, full of Obama type possibilities.

Historic Stewardship and Clean Energy

Actually the quote from President Obama is about clean, green energy.. “…we have to balance economic growth with good stewardship of the land God gave us.”

(Courier-Journal.com, “Obama chides Republicans, President says party needs to offer ideas,” by James R. Carroll, March 24, 2009.)

I’m still wondering about the idea of how to balance clean, green energy (huge, out of scale wind-turbines) with a residential community, much less an historic, beautiful one.

Yup, there were large smokestacks spewing horrible stuff into the air in Newburyport, MA earlier in the 20th century, and the wind from wind turbines is clean and green. But because we (at least a lot of us) are mighty excited about clean, green energy, does that mean that it might not be a good idea to give some serious thought to balancing economic growth and clean energy growth with the stewardship of the historic land, Newburyport, MA in which we live?

And again, I come back to scale. I think the existing wind turbine could give us the opportunity to have that kind of dialogue. And I don’t know the answer.

I do, however, think that David Hall struck a balance between clean and green energy and our residential and historic Newburyport, New England city. The solar panels on the restored Tannery are not at odds with the historic nature of our Newburyport historic district.

We are a city that fought two large towers that would have spanned the Merrimac River, because, among other things, they were completely out of scale with the environment in which they would have existed (on either side, both rural and residential). The alternative was to put the wires underneath the river.

For a residential and historic area, an emphasis on solar energy for long term clean and green might be more appropriate than more out of scale wind turbines– the Industrial Park which they are zoned for, is mighty close to the residential areas of Newburyport, MA. Not exactly a new conflict.

Such are my politically incorrect thoughts.

Newburyport Balance

As I drive on Rt. 95 going North past the Scotland Road exit, I come to the Newburyport vista that I always enjoy so much, what is known as the “Common Pasture.” Newburyport is one of those rare communities that has fought to combine rural agricultural historic areas, the Common Pasture, with architectural preservation, our Newburyport National Historic District, the engine of our economic and cultural vibrancy.

And smack dab in the middle of that beautiful vista is the gigantic, in my mind, completely out of scale with its surrounding environment, now getting fairly famous, wind turbine.

My knee jerk reaction, seeing it up and running, is to give it the finger. I wait a good while, before even deciding whether to comment on it on the Newburyport Blog or anywhere else.

A) I am totally politically incorrect, and green anywhere is good. The wind turbine is not an affront to the historic Newburyport landscape, but an 21st century adaptation, a natural outgrowth, the local Newburyport green response to “Drill Baby Drill.” I should be grateful.

B) Wind turbines are a good thing, but a balance between contemporary green technology and historic preservation is a vital thing for the long term economic vibrancy of our historic seaport New England city. It’s the completely out of scale aspect of the wind turbine that makes it objectionable. 292 feet is a lot of feet, even though the city ordinance written by Newburyport City Councilors Ed Cameron and Barry Connell allows for 300 feet, and a variance of up to 400 feet.

My knee jerk reaction is to want to run out and make sure that the Newburyport City Council who wrote, endorsed and voted for such out of scale structures, along with the Mayor of Newburyport who endorsed the ordinance, that none of them get re-elected to their elected posts. Plus, there are 22 sites that the Newburyport Planning Office deems acceptable for more out of scale wind turbines, although from what I can make out, at the moment no one seems to want to erect another one (yet).

There is a message from Ed Cameron on Gillian Swart’s blog:

The Newburyport Planning and Development Committee
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 7pm
Newburyport City Hall Auditorium

Wind Energy and the City’s Wind Energy Conversion ordinance–primary topic.

Anyone who now might have second thoughts about the ordinance or would like to see it “tweaked,” now that an example is spinning in our midst, would be able to have a chat with our Newburyport city officials.

Editor’s Note: President of the Newburyport City Council James Shanley has emailed me to say that the Wind Energy Conversion Facilities Ordinance was written by the Planning Board and the Planning Office.  Newburyport City Councilors Ed Cameron and Barry Connell were the Newburyport Councilors who sponsored the ordinance, and James is pretty sure that it passed 11-0.

The link to the Wind Energy Conversion Facilities Ordinance is here.

A Loud Moderate Voice

I flip though the TV channels and go, “Wait a minute, that looks like Frank,” but in backtracking, he’s vanished or I was wrong.

So a few days later I Google, and yes, on YouTube I find him. The most entertaining and Frankesk is his appearance on CNN.

I’m very proud, of long time friend and Newburyport community member Frank Schaeffer, whose political views I’ve watched morph over the years from someone who was “right” of Attila the Hun, to now a “moderate” voice– howbeit a loud, unrelenting “moderate” voice. And this is a “moderate” voice, one who has as much distain for the far “Left” in our country as he does for the far “Right,” although I’m sure that the Left would love to claim him.

Frank wrote a number of novels about what the Religious Right is like from the inside. I’ve always been amazed that the novels weren’t picked up as an insight into how this vocal and powerful segment of our society thinks. But they were never viewed that way. I guess it was too subtle an approach.

In “Crazy for God,” Frank takes the reader by the hand, and step by step guides them through the good, the bad and the ugly of this part of American culture. And I always thought that this was the book that would make the inevitable huge breakthrough for Frank. And yes, it appears that that may finally be true.

And finally the media may have found someone, right here in our own Newburyport community, that can explain in no uncertain terms what the Religious Right is like and what it has done to our society.

And the CNN interview with D. L. Hughley is quintessential Frank Schaeffer. No apologies to Rush Limbaugh by this fellow.

I’m not a betting woman, but I wouldn’t be surprised after his visit to CNN, that within a year Frank Schaeffer could have his own cable TV show. He’s a natural. You can see the segment on CNN here.

Economic Rebellion

I find that when something major bad happens in my life I go, not surprisingly, into shock–paralysis, then fear, then I start to get cranky, irritable and downright angry, and then eventually some sense of equilibrium settles in. All part of the process.

At least what the press is reporting is America enraged, and their rage coming to a boiling point. Protests at 100 locations are being organize by TakeBackTheEconomy.org at the offices of major banks, other corporations and locations against corporate excess tomorrow, Thursday March 19th. From what I can make out Bank of America is the corporation of choice in Massachusetts (this will, I think, make Gillian Swart happy). The rage at AIG rages on all across TV, Web and radio land.

It seems as if a country we went into shock when we first heard about the financial excesses and meltdown, then into paralyzing economic fear, and now we seem to be thawing out, and experiencing a sense of communal rage. A sense of justice is being demanded, problem solving and getting out of the situation we are in, at the moment, seems to be on the shelf.

And I wonder if this is part of a process of communally working through a major now global trauma, or if it is something more. More revolutionary. An “Off with their heads” rebellion. A visceral demand for a more equitable distribution of wealth.

From a perch in Newburyport, MA or anywhere, who could know if this is just part of the process of working towards an economic equilibrium, or if it is the beginning of an all out rebellion about something much bigger.

A New American World Order

My father was a very smart and courageous man. He lived through the depression, served his country and received a Purple Heart in World War II. He deftly navigated the charters of the corporate and social world of New York City, and then reinvented himself at the age of 72. At almost 90 he looked at the financial landscape, and I think looking back at the different things that we talked about, he knew on some very profound level, that economically things were going to go into a tailspin. And he was tired. He was ready to go.

He knew exactly how he wanted to go and was very clear about it (I had hoped that he would make different choices, but he did not), and what I discovered was that, pretty much, aside from myself, no one was listening. But my Dad was very much in control of his own destiny, and things did go the way he wanted them to go, whether anybody wanted them to or not. And frankly, his timing was pretty good.

And what I see today is that President Obama was always very clear in what he would do as President of the United States. Either many Americans weren’t listening, or they believed that he wouldn’t go though with it, that it was only “empty campaign rhetoric.”

And in some ways it seems to me that the wealthy (Rush Limbaugh, by his own admission, is no exception) are furious that he intends to actually go through with what he promised, ie that they are going to pay higher taxes. And it seems to me as if we are on some level, this was actually articulated by some cable TV shows last night, playing a game of chicken, or witnessing a power play, between the Obama Administration and the wealthy. This is what I think. That they want his administration to fail because they don’t want to be told what to do by a man who is Afro American, and they do not want their taxes to go up, and they don’t have, it seems to me, much empathy for the folks that have less money than they do.

They are staging a weird sort of protest against what they, I think rightly, see as a reorganization of a social order. The wealthy white man might no longer be in control. Better to humiliate President Obama, take a loss for a certain amount of time, send the Democrats permanently into the wilderness, and return to a free market economy, hopefully with no or little restriction, business as usual, just like the good old days of the last eight years.

This is what I am thinking and hoping. That because they haven’t been listening, and they are so intent on their own agenda, that they have misjudged the new president, severely. President Obama is very clear on what he wants to happen. And I hope, among all the noise, and smoke and taffy, that the old world order of the wealthiest in this country getting pretty much a free lunch, compared to the rest of the country, is dead on arrival. And that we continue to see a new America emerge and once again reinvent herself.

Science and Taxes

I remember when the Bush Administration lowered the capital gains tax to 15%, my father was horrified. The ordinary American he told me was still paying 25% in taxes on a CD that they had in the bank. He was also aghast at the the Bush Administration gradual repeal of the estates tax. My father believed that the wealthy in America were the ones to pay the most taxes. He predicted that the extreme “Voodoo” (ironically dubbed by George Bush the elder) economic policies of the Bush Administration would lead to fiscal chaos for the United States of America. I wish he was around for me to say from Newburyport, MA, “Dad, wow were you ever right.”

My father was a tax lawyer, one of the first. His job was to help wealthy Americans avoid paying taxes. But what I discovered was that he used his influence as a tax lawyer to persuade folks to give to things like research for mental illness and the cure for cancer.

My father believed in and encouraged investing in science, even when the government, in the dark ages, under the former Bush administration refused to do so, by refusing federal money for stem cell research.

I briefly got to know an artist by the name of Eliza Auth and her husband Tony Auth, the syndicated political cartoonist and cartoonist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, who has been mentioned before on the Newburyport Blog. Tony Auth graciously gave this political cartoon that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on May 27, 2005 to my father for his 90th birthday, and also gave me permission to use the image on the Newburyport Blog.

Tony Auth, May 27, 2005, Used with Permission

So on November 4, 2008 we as a country decided to put away childish things, voted for a candidate who wanted to once again embrace science, and go back to a more realistic tax structure. And all of a sudden the country, or as the media would have us think, is surprised and some of them aghast.

This is my theory, and I think it’s one that my Dad would have agreed with, that for eight years under the Bush Administration, the wealthy have had a basically, pretty close to, almost, tax free, relatively speaking, free ride. And possibly that part of why the market is down so much, is a petulance on the part of the 15% capital gains folks on Wall Street, that the existing tax disparity might have only been an eight year Christmas present by the former Bush administration.

Newburyport Stories

I open the present my son gives me for Christmas, a book. A skull with a cigarette on the front cover. My face obviously gives my skepticism away.

“No, Mom, really, he’s on the New York Times best seller list, I promise.”

I feel slightly better when I find out that the skull was painted by my favorite painter, Vincent Van Gogh. To say the least, I am still skeptical.

My son to reassure me, sits me down and reads the first short essay/story. It’s about germs. I’m still not won over.

But after all, this is my own beloved son, and I want to make at least some attempt to appreciate his thought out present to moi. So I plunk myself down in the comfiest chair I can find, and proceed to read the skull book. By the fourth essay/story, I am howling with laughter, and offer to read my son some of the stuff in his now much appreciated present. He declines.

The 8th essay/story is about a New York City woman, who could have been any number of characters that I’ve known so well. And I begin to wonder that maybe these stories have a lot less fiction in them than I first supposed.

And having struggled with, in what fashion to continue the Newburyport Blog, an idea begins to form. Stories, maybe fiction, maybe true, centered around my beloved New England seacoast city of Newburyport, MA, my stories, but hopefully somewhat universal as well as local.

What woman, Newburyport or elsewhere, hasn’t stood in front of the mirror and wondered about “midriff bulge.” Another version of, “Am I fat?”

What one of us, while considering the problem of “midriff bulge,” hasn’t also considered a personal financial fate in these lousy economic times.

Instead of “preaching” about historic preservation, and preserving the historic quality of this wonderful historic town, an experience of what it is like to live in an historic place, day after day, and how that adds to an unquantifiable quality of life.

Instead of talking about how upset I am about specific “restoration” and building projects, why not talk about historic preservation and boob jobs, hoping that people will start rating planning and historic preservation projects as a “double D boob job” as the worst, to a “braless wonder,” at their very best.

In December 2008 I find I am weary of pissing off my fellow Newburyport citizens, living under a constant risk of being sued or being threaten of being sued, and this appears to be a possible solution.

After trying to find every possible book by the skull guy, I finally Google him. And I find that, yes David Sedaris has not only been around for quite a long time, and I am very late to the David Sedaris planet, but also even that he has been on David Letterman a lot, no less, much less a visit to one of my favorites, Jon Stewart. From here on in, I vow to myself, I will trust my son’s taste in literature, even if the cover contains a picture of a skull.

Newburyport Comments

All along the way the Newburyport Blog has been criticized now and then for not taking comments. Even as it commenced, with a lofty goal of “civil” discourse, it was pointed out to moi, that the Newburyport Blog was no blog.

In the category of “how soon we forget.” For the most part, I’m not a big fan of the comment thing. Having seen the mean spirited, cannibal like comments from early discourse, on the Newburyport site, “Cannibal City,” and now watching the comments on the Newburyport Daily News (which I wonder if they regret, the Newburyport Daily News that is), when I started out, I set cement like parameters, guidelines for “commenting.” Not only were there no anonymous comments, but comments were to be emailed in, with a name and phone number, so that I could verify who sent them (and I did), a little like a letter to the editor, to try and keep the discourse “civil.”

I also knew of so many people who were actually devastated by comments made on blogs, and devastating people was not the aim of the Newburyport Blog.

Civility did not last long, and neither did the cement like comment thing, all of which is chronicled in the first 1-9 months of the Newburyport Blog, for anyone who might actually be interested.

I also found out, because legally a blog is a publication, that I not only could get sued for whatever I wrote, but also for the content of comments on the blog which other people wrote, and even for refusing comments, if I had comments, on the Newburyport Blog. It was a big, “good grief, who needs this,” sort of thing.

Way, way too complicated, and worrisome for moi.

I finally gave up on the comment thing, and figured that people would eventually get their own blogs, which is exactly what has happened. And now we have a whole lot of blogs, all about Newburyport, MA from all kinds of different points of view.

And I would add that I think the master of defusing nasty stuff on the comment thing is Tom Salemi over at the Newburyport Posts. It is a talent I simply do not possess.

Political Problem Solvers

I feel very protective of our new president.

I ask myself if this were true if it had been Senator McCain, and after some mild soul searching, the answer is “yes,” the country being in such a mess. Sarah Palin, if my soul searching is truly legit, not so much.

I even get offended by Jon Stewart, which is very hard to for me to do. I say to the television, because Jon Stewart cannot hear me, “I know you are trying to be ironic, but it’s just not working, at all.” And then I think to myself that irony really must be going out of fashion, if someone like Jon Stewart is having a hard time pulling it off (see early entry).

I’m getting ever more impatient with the fringes of not only the “Right,” but to my growing surprise, equally, if not more so, with the “Left.”

“Give it up all ready,” I say to no one who can actually hear me, “Stop being so stupid, we need to get things done here.”

I so far I am very much taken with this “new” political approach of President Obama’s, i.e. “problem solving.” This definitely works for me.

And as our own Newburyport local race for mayor begins to get going, I am going to look at candidates through the Obama lens. It’s quite a standard to live up to, but tough luck, I think it’s about time that local Newburyport politics also got this “righteous.” In fact I think it’s about time that all politics got this “righteous,” even though we are only two and half days into this new president’s presidency, and I’m assuming here, that the righteous politics stuff is going to continue.

I’m going to look for candidates who listen to different sides, not just out of duty, or worse, not actually even paying attention, but because they are really and truly interested, and think that maybe someone else might come up with a better idea than they would.

I’m looking for candidates who are so confident that they might be willing to surround themselves with people much more intelligent and much more capable than themselves.

I’m looking for candidates who could embrace this new paradigm of governing, hoping against hope that this new paradigm of governing of President Obama’s may actually work. Two and a half days down the road, so far so good.

The Newburyport Library’s Hidden Treasure

I find at the Newburyport Library, which is one of my favorite places in all of Newburyport, and somehow makes paying my property taxes less painful, a small, and what looks like a treasure chest of a section. I decide to keep the “call number” of this treasure chest of a section, a big fat secret, and not to share it with anyone, not even any of the librarians that work at the Newburyport Library in Newburyport, MA.

I impulsively dub this section the, “Everything is going to be all right, really and truly, at least I hope so, ” section of the Newburyport Library, in Newburyport, MA. I spot a book by Stephen Colbert, so I know this finite area contains humorous stuff. Humor being something that I could use a heaping dose of in these scary and uncertain economic times.

And I spot an old friend (my mother used to say, semi rolling her eyes, “Books are our friends”), “Lost in the Cosmos, the Last Self-Help Book,” by Walker Percy, which I snatch from the shelf, as if it might be snatched from my hands, and usher it downstairs to the beautiful granite topped checkout center, before scurrying home with my new found treasure.

And that night I sit down in the comfiest chair possible and start to read, once again, Walker Percy’s “Lost in the Cosmos.”

By page two I no longer smile in anticipation, but begin to frown. By page four I turn back to the copyright page to find out when this book had actually been written–1983, a while ago. By page eight I call it quits.

The book no longer seems like a witty commentary on the society in which we live. It seems bitter, angry and confused about the direction that society is taking. I am beginning to understand a) why “irony” has been getting such a bad name lately and b) why this book has been sitting on the shelf and does not have a long waiting list instead.

I wonder out loud to myself if it could be possible that we as a culture could have actually outgrown an angry 1980’s ironic phase?

And I think about our almost president to be Obama. Over and over again the one thing people seem to agree on, and still seem to agree on, is that here is a man that does not appear to be angry, when in fact, many think he should be.

And last night as I flip through the channels looking for the latest inaugural news, on one of the cable channels I come across someone who says that they think that it is “ironic” that our new president will be inaugurated the day after Martin Luther King Day.

I think to myself that I in fact I do not think that this is “ironic” at all, now that I am coming to the conclusion that it may be possible that “irony” may indeed be going out of fashion.

Instead I think of it as what a wise friend of mine calls “God’s pinky.” Possibly that this “coincidence” could be the god of my understanding indicating that electing the first African American president is a very good thing.

National and Newburyport Local

In two and a half months so much has happened. I feel like I’ve been holding my breath. And the world is still swirling around and it still feels as if I’m out of balance.

A person who does seem to be in balance (and very calm), is our president-elect, Barack Obama.

My one very strong reservation when I went to the voting booth and cast my ballot, was that I had no indication, really, of how Mr. Obama would govern.

And so far, I am unbelievably relieved.

My great hope was that with the chit chat of the “middle” class, Mr. Obama would indeed govern from the “middle,” and with smarts.

And it appears from the appointment of his economic team and his foreign policy team that “middle” and with smarts may be us. In my book so far this is a, “Whew.”

Having blogged The Newburyport Blog for almost 3 years now, and having followed minutely how folks govern on the local level, as I’ve said before, I’ve become a downright “centrist,” because it appears to me that governing from the center, locally, has the best chance of getting things done.

And maybe it’s that just these “up in the air” times are making me cranky (they are making a lot of people cranky), but I’m having very little tolerance for the folks that are on either edge of the spectrum, right or left. My eye-rolling response to both is, “Please give it up, let us get important (vast understatement) things done.”

And what happens nationally, very much effects us locally. Such things as aid to states in financially perilous times, has a whole lot to do with Newburyport, MA, in the hopes that, if it arrives, state aid trickles down to our fair seaside city.

I am local, and I am hoping for good national (as my friend Frank Schaeffer would say) “Juju.”

Newburyport Banks

I stopped by my Newburyport mutual savings bank, which I call one of our Newburyport community banks, and it was business as usual. I asked if they were giving out mortgages, and Yup, yes they most surely are.

And I am so grateful that I have my mortgage with one of the local community banks. Which is what I told them.

One of the perplexing things about this financial crisis, is that institutions that are having trouble don’t know what kind of mortgages they have.

That is because their mortgages have been sold and resold.

And one of the things that I like about our Newburyport banks, and I’ve said this before, is that they are local in the best sense. They know exactly what mortgages they have, and who they lent them to. They do NOT sell them. They keep them, and they make money off them.

They are in great shape.

Responsibility, accountability, commonsense, fiscally sound. Not to repeat myself, but to repeat myself, that’s one great example for the situation that we as a country find ourselves in.

And part of me even hesitates to blog during a financial crisis as big as the one that we are experiencing at the moment. I just could not believe it when the House of Representatives did not pass the rescue bill yesterday and the DOW dropped almost 800 points. Yikes!

And someone described the situation to me this way. It’s a credit problem (one which our Newburyport banks are not experiencing, but obviously one which a lot of others banks are). It’s as if someone turned the water on the water spout, off or down to a trickle so the vegetation could not get any water. Consequences not so good.

It would mean that small business could have problems getting credit for their payroll. Not only might the businesses not grow, they may not be able to pay employees and jobs could be lost.

It could be difficult to get credit for cars, homes, a college education. People’s retirement could be at risk.

So this rescue bill if it does NOT pass, could effect all of us.

I’ve contacted my Representative John Tierney who voted against this bill, and asked him the next time round, in no uncertain terms, to get the thing done and vote for it.

Newburyport Yankee Economics

It was once called “Voodoo Economics.” I believe it was called that by the first Mr. Bush in the Republican primary against Ronald Regan.

I always thought Mr. Bush was right. “Trickle down” economics surely seemed voodooish to me.

I keep coming back to Ronald Regan. Sorry, heresy, I never thought he was a good president. I still don’t. I thought his deregulation economic stuff was a lousy idea. With the huge Wall Street bailout in the works, I wonder what he would think now?

It always struck me as being very un-Yankee like. Newburyport, MA has often been thought of as “Yankee” territory.

We have two “Yankee” banks in town. They do not sell their mortgages, and as a result, because they are responsible for what happens, it’s always been the case, to my knowledge, that if anyone applied for a mortgage, they got checked out pretty good, and had to actually prove that they could pay that mortgage.

“Yankees” tend to save. Coming up with something like coming up with a down payment when buying a house, could be seen as a good thing. Really. It means that the person is more likely to be very committed to making it work.

Our “Yankee” community banking institutions are doing just fine. And it’s because of what some might see as their “thrifty,” commonsense way of doing things.

It used to look sort of old fashion, even frumpy. Not any more. Newburyport Yankee economics is not “voodoo economics.” It works during good times and less than good times.

And it is my very firm opinion that Americans could see a great example by looking at how our Newburyport, MA local, community banks work.

Mythic Absolution, Newburyport, Politics

In thinking about the “mythic” power of politicians, and what they represent to our collective American unconscious (see previous posts), I began to wonder about what other myths our top ticket candidates might embody.

Bill Moyers (yes, wise men and women tend to make the top of my list) back in January 2008, addressed the myth of Barack Obama taking away white guilt of racism. (Myth not being something that would be either true or false, but a story or a person that represents a world view.)

You can read the transcript of that fascinating segment here.

For whites to be absolved of a history of racism has a very powerful mythic quality about it.

And then I started thinking about what other myths does Palin personify. One of those myths could be that, even a woman with a large family, could successfully work, i.e. be a governor or a vice president. (Just as a btw, our very own former governor Jane Swift, as I recall, had trouble demonstrating that this particular myth could be a reality.)

And this is also one very powerful myth. Because if someone with 5 children, a newborn with special needs being one of them, could be a successful mother and hold such a powerful office–that could mean, that a family with 1 or 2 children, with both parents who have to work, because of economic realities, and who may on some level feel very, very guilty when they leave their child with a caregiver– if that person could successfully accomplish that feat, that resolves an awful lot of guilt, for an awful lot of people.

And this goes straight to the heart of our difficult economic times. People are having to work harder to pay for gas, utilities, food and hold onto their homes. This could often mean even less time spent with their families–creating even more guilt on the part of struggling families.

And for families with this particular scenario, which is an awful lot of families in America, Palin resolves a lot of guilt in very difficult economic circumstances.

So, when I think about it, and this applies to families in Newburyport, MA as well, my question would be, are the many dilemmas that we as a nation face that Palin could represent (see earlier posts as well), are they stronger than the mythic quality of Barack Obama’s absolving the white world of racism? (Again check out Bill Moyers’ exploration of this concept here.)

Newburyport, Power of Myth

Bill Moyers again did not disappoint.

In this weeks Bill Moyers Journal, Bill Moyers had this to say:

“The novelist Russell Banks, in his first book of non-fiction, just published, explains the Sarah Palin phenomenon even before it happened. In “Dreaming Up America,” he writes that we choose our presidents not on the basis of their experience or even their political views, but on how well they tap into our basic beliefs, our deepest communal desires, including our religious or spiritual beliefs. Our presidents, he writes, represent in some very personal way the imagination and the mythology of the people who elect them…”

“No wonder reality-based journalists are having a hard time with this story. Mythology is not their beat. But in the imagination of her tribe, Sarah Palin achieved an almost immaculate conception. Her lack of experience matters not to them. Nor do they care that her past is filled with contradictions, and nothing the press reports, no matter how grounded in fact, can shake their faith…”

The whole transcript can be read here.

And a comment on an opinion piece in the New York times has this to say:

“Sarah Palin appeals to the conservative base. But she also appeals to Americans who are longing for a glorious past. A past in which a hard working man could support a family, even if he did not have higher education (Todd Palin). A past in which a mother of young children could rely on relatives and friends to help her with her daily tasks. And, on a more archaic level, a past where you could go out and hunt and fish to bring food home to your family.

I have had enough of liberals making fun of the Palins. I do not agree with Sarah Palin’s political views, but I see how her life can be attractive in a society that is losing all these very basic securities.”

You can read that comment here.

And in a world where families are splintered, fragmented and globalized, I think the commentator is right when she says, “But she also appeals to Americans who are longing for a glorious past… A past in which a mother of young children could rely on relatives and friends to help her with her daily tasks.”

And it is also one of the reasons that people are so attracted to Newburyport, MA, because it holds out a myth, a myth of community, a community which people are an extended family, and support one another–that is so embodied by our beautiful, quaint, historic (and Federally funded) downtown, and the historic neighborhoods that surround it.

Myth, Politics, Newburyport

Either you love Sarah Palin or you don’t, and what 2 weeks since her arrival on the national political scene, people’s feelings on the matter seem to be already pretty much entrenched. And I am fascinated by this phenomenon.

My observation in local politics here in Newburyport, MA, is that people often vote viscerally on personality, not necessarily who would be best on the issues that face our small New England seaport city.

And I’m imagining that some part of this political reality would apply to how we would vote as citizens on a national ticket.

I came across a fascinating article by Joe Klein, September 10, 2008 at time.com.

“Palin’s embrace of small-town values is where her hold on the national imagination begins. She embodies the most basic American myth — Jefferson’s yeoman farmer, the fantasia of rural righteousness — updated in a crucial way: now Mom works too. Palin’s story stands with one foot squarely in the nostalgia for small-town America and the other in the new middle-class reality. She brings home the bacon, raises the kids — with a significant assist from Mr. Mom — hunts moose and looks great in the process. I can’t imagine a more powerful, or current, American Dream.”

Joe Klein goes on to talk about Ronald Regan:

“The blinding whiteness and fervent religiosity of the party he (Ronald Regan) created are an enduring testament to the power of the myth of an America that existed before we had all these problems. The power of Sarah Palin is that she is the latest, freshest iteration of that myth.

Joe Klein continues on:

“The Republican Party’s subliminal message seems stronger than ever this year because of the nature of the Democratic nominee for President. Barack Obama could not exist in the small-town America that Reagan fantasized. He’s the product of what used to be called miscegenation, a scenario that may still be more terrifying than a teen daughter’s pregnancy in many American households.”

I looked up “miscegenation,” I had never heard the word before. It means, “Cohabitation, sexual relations, or marriage involving persons of different races.”

Joe Klein concludes that the “mythic” nature of Obama’s story, is actually much more reflective of America today, but is a “vision is not sellable right now to a critical mass of Americans.”

You can read the entire article by Joe Klein here.