Does Raleigh make room for innovation?

Now that I’ve lived half of my life in Raleigh I’ve been thinking more about how Raleigh grows. There seem to be two fundamental camps, one that welcomes innovation and the trying of new things, and the other that is very cautious about new things.

I’ve always been the kind who prefers when people play by the rules. But what if the rules aren’t really necessary? What if the rules make a situation worse?

My wife and I recently spent a delightful weekend alone in the City of Savannah. Savannah has long recognized the value of tourism (being a sea town. Duh.) and allows people to carry their open containers of alcohol anywhere they please. Savannah apparently does not have restrictions on outdoor seating at restaurants. Now, I was only there for one weekend but it seemed to me that chaos had not broken out. No souls were apparently lost. In fact, people seemed to be getting along just fine. On the other hand, Savannah does have strict laws against panhandling, which seemed to be respected. Overall, though, Savannah seems pretty laissez-faire about rules and restrictions and it looks like it works for them.

I couldn’t help but think of Raleigh while we walked the streets of Savannah, and how “loosening the reins” and seeing what happens doesn’t really come naturally to Raleigh. It’s like we have to be against something before we can be for it. This does not help to spur the innovation that we need to attract and grow world-changing businesses here. We are more reactive rather than proactive.

I imagine what Raleigh could accomplish if, rather than asking “why?”, instead asking “why not?”

Highlights of 2015: Aunts Linda and Mary

Unfortunately, 2015 had its share of sorrow. In May, my Aunt Linda passed away after a long battle with cancer. I took bereavement leave from my job, hopped the southbound Amtrak, and went to the funeral in Winter Park, Florida. While the occasion could have been better, it was good to pay my respects and nice to see my cousins again. My Aunt Mary was married to my dad’s brother, Donald, and was quite active in her church.

In August, my Aunt Mary also passed away. Aunt Mary was married to my mom’s brother, Bub, and lived in Panama City. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend her funeral.

Both of my aunts were the sweetest women. It’s still hard accepting that they’re gone.

Highlights of 2015: Family time

At Hanging Rock State Park

At Hanging Rock State Park

We had a lot of good family time in 2015. The biggest family time item was our trip to Alaska, which will be discussed in a future blog post. But we also didn’t have to go far to have a fun time together.

Thumbs up for Thunder Road

Thumbs up for Thunder Road

In May, we took a family trip over to Charlotte for a day at Carowinds. Hallie’s friend Suzanna joined us for a day of roller coasters and water flumes. It was fun showing the kids around the park where I once worked, though it’s changing rapidly. Many of the attractions have been removed to make room for others. Also, we discovered after we left that the park’s premier wooden roller coaster, Thunder Road, would be dismantled later that summer. I’m so glad the kids got a chance to ride it while it was still around. For the record, they really enjoyed it, proclaiming it their favorite. The apples don’t fall from the tree, do they? Continue reading →

Highlights of 2015: Health investment

Back to my Highlights of 2015 (it’s March, right?).

I made a lot of investments in my health in 2015. Working on Centennial Campus, I began to take regular walks around campus during lunchtime, often clocking 20 minutes or more of walking that way. When I took my new job in October, my office was within easy walking distance of my home. I began walking to work on a regular basis. Add this to a morning dog walk most weekday mornings and an occasional evening dog walk and I routinely clock over an hour of walking each day.

I also got on board with the Veterans Administration healthcare. This was spurred on by my ususal health issues that I suspect are related to my Gulf War service. As I mentioned recently, the VA has taken pretty good care of me. I am also now in the middle of a drug trial for prednisone for treating Gulf War illness, but that started in February and not 2015!
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The Case for Bernie: 5 Reasons the Vermont Socialist Deserves Your Vote | News | Indy Week

Bob Geary on Bernie Sanders. I wholeheartedly agree.

Decimated. I’m watching Bernie Sanders following the South Carolina primary, and he’s not putting any gloss on the rout he suffered. Decimated is the word he uses.

So here’s where we are, Bernie fans. We had a tie and a close loss in the first two caucus states. We won big in the New Hampshire primary. We lost twice as big in South Carolina. This is all-too-familiar territory for those of us in Wolfpack Nation. Some early-season successes. Blown out by our first tough opponent. What did legendary N.C. State basketball coach Jimmy Valvano advise in such circumstances? “Too bad,” I think he said. “We’re hosed. We can’t win. We should drop out and root for Carolina.

”No! He didn’t say that! He said never give up! Never, ever give up! You know, like Hillary Clinton said this country will never, ever figure out how to ditch the insurance companies and save everybody money with Medicare for All—Bernie’s plan.

Well, Hillary has her never, ever, and Bernie supporters should have ours. We should vote for our guy if we want to, knowing he’s unlikely to win, but so was the ’83 Wolfpack—until they reeled off nine upsets in a row to take the national championship.

Notice, I am not trying to persuade Hillary’s fans to vote for Bernie. That would be like asking people in light blue shirts to put their thumb and middle fingers together while holding up the other two. Can’t happen.

Hillary’s voters have a right to their belief that the way the country’s going is the best we can hope for—and so what if we’re moving steadily to the right, ceding more and more power to corporations and the wealthy few? Because if the Republicans take the White House, we’d be worse off, and besides, Hillary has experience.

But for those not sold on Hillary, I offer these five reasons to vote for Bernie in the March 15 Democratic presidential primary.

Source: The Case for Bernie: 5 Reasons the Vermont Socialist Deserves Your Vote | News | Indy Week

Hallie to the rescue

During a recent school event, one of Hallie’s classmates suffered a medical emergency. While her other classmates stood around and watched, gripped with panic, Hallie leaped into action and performed first aid (the amusing thing is that up until now she considered the first aid class she took to be a waste of time). Once her friend had recovered, Hallie continued with the event as if nothing happened, and didn’t even mention it to us afterward. We were clueless when the child’s parent passed on her praise Hallie for her reaction, not knowing anything about our daughter’s quick thinking (and acting). It was only last night that we managed to pry the details out of her. To Hallie it was no big deal.
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Raleigh’s accent

Some friends were discussing accents the other day. A buddy who was born and raised in Raleigh was told his accent sounded Midwestern. As a Raleigh resident who was raised all over the South, I have to say I don’t hear much of a Southern accent around Raleigh.

Maybe it’s because of the way Raleigh draws residents from all around the country and world. Companies like IBM set up shop here in the early 1960s, bringing new residents in from all over (and particularly the North). As these groups assimilated the accents all blended, too. Raleigh is a melting pot of people and accents. So I suppose one could say that Raleigh does have its own accent but it’s indistinct. Maybe boring. And boring might not be a bad thing.

On a related note, last night I met with a group of very friendly transplants from the North. For all the grief my daughter gives me about suddenly sounding Southern when I’m around my Southern friends, last night I caught myself actually slipping into a New England accent. 🙂

An Open Letter to Bill Clinton, from a Former Neighbor and Bernie Sanders Supporter

Devoted liberal that I was—I now refer to myself as “progressive,” by the way—I defended you in subway stations, in billiard halls, in mall food courts, in tobacco shops. When others accused you of playing politics with Operation Infinite Reach and Operation Desert Fox, I came to your defense. You were my President, and I your devoted voter. (Meanwhile, of course, our military was slaying innocent lives. I am now ashamed I ever supported a person’s political existence at the expense of innocent lives.)

But what the heck, those were the gay 90s. We had a balanced budget. Everywhere we looked there was growth, growth, growth. Glass-Steagall-Schteagall. No matter how one defines “is,” after the Reagan and Bush years, it was good to support a Democratic President. I even once came to your defense in Kramerbooks, of all places.

Yet, despite my years of ardent support, this past week and with a toss of the wrist, you threw me and millions of others, Slick Willie willy-nilly-style, under the Tea Party bus.

Source: An Open Letter to Bill Clinton, from a Former Neighbor and Bernie Sanders Supporter

Quit knocking socialized medicine

Stethoscope-2
A conservative friend posted a snarky commentary on failing socialist countries on his Facebook page. Another conservative friend of his added his comments:

Absolutely. Question to us do we really think our govt can run it any better? They can’t run even things like VA.

This guy knows nothing about the VA. He’s not a native American nor has he ever served in the military. He has no expertise on the VA and he’s calling it a failure.

I’ve been to the VA for healthcare a number of times over the past year. Yes, appointments are made well in advance but they always promptly see me once I arrive. Never have I had to wait an hour like I did when I had to see my ENT last month. When I go to the VA I never have time to even get my phone out of my pocket before they’re calling me back. They make me feel like a rock star.

Too often, I will be lucky if my private practice doctors spend 10 minutes with me before they’re off to the next patient. I rarely have time to describe what’s wrong with me before it’s – BOOM – time for him to go. The VA takes time to listen to me. I have never felt like I was a burden.

I got a copay bill from the VA last month and so I promptly paid it. Yesterday, the Treasury Department mailed it back to me. Covered. Nice.

The one thing I don’t like about VA healthcare is that I have to drive 25 miles to Durham to get my tests done. It could be more convenient – a full hospital could be built here in Raleigh, but then again few in Congress want to actually meet the government’s promise to properly take care of veterans. It’s a shame. Yet in my experience the VA does well with what they’re given.

I still fondly recall how ten years ago the government of Italy cared for our infant son when he got sick during our vacation there. Didn’t cost us a dime. If only we as Americans could grow up and realize we would all save money (and a lot of goddamn frustration, frankly) by totally revamping our sorry health care system. The VA has shown me that it can be done.

Sometimes walled gardens are good

I often knock Facebook as being like the new AOL: a wonderful walled garden designed to keep you from ever wandering elsewhere on the Internet. There’s some truth to that, sure. But it occurred to me that the vast majority of really inspiring, uplifting news I’ve gotten has come from sources like Facebook.

Sure, Facebook gets repetitive (“cat-video-du-jour!” “you won’t BELIEVE what happens next!”) and often the choices made by Facebook’s feed algorithm feel claustrophobic, but a lot of news offered by the traditional media seems too often biased towards the negative (“if it bleeds, it leads.”). To my surprise I’ve discovered I have soft spot for the “fluff pieces” found on Facebook.