Cornered

As I write these words, 22 U.S. banks have failed so far this year.

What is the magnitude of this? Consider that over the previous three years, 2005-'7, the total of bank failures in our country was...three.

Wow. And this accounting of unprecedented institutional carnage does not include banks that the Bush administration has deemed too big to fail, and therefore qualified for its TARP "bailout" funds to keep them afloat, at least for now. These include, most recently, CitiBank, until an eye blink ago the biggest bank on the planet.

As this is the beginning of the holiday season, many Americans will no doubt watch "It's a Wonderful Life," Frank Kapra's 1946 classic film starring James Stewart, Donna Reed, and Lionel Barrymore.

This film's premise is that the American Dream requires a decent, ordinary guy to sacrifice all of his own dreams to save his community. Even then, he fails, and sinks into the depths of a suicidal depression. His salvation comes through the grace of an angel, who forces him to confront what a world without him would have become.

Naturally, this story appeals to Americans of all stripes. The concept that any one of us matters that much is deeply ingrained in our collective consciousness.

This is a society of would-be heroes, those who would stand up, against all odds, in opposition to the forces of evil.

If only our lives were that simple! If only we could live in a comic book version of reality, as opposed to our true circumstances.

All of this makes me so, so sad. It is an ineffable sadness, a bottomless pit. No words I can string together can express how harmful I feel the dishonest and cruel propaganda Frank Capra inflicted on my fellow citizens was -- in the year before I was born.

We do not need more fake Daddies who sacrifice their own lives as if that was what their children would most honor. Every child I've ever met, including all of my own, would never hope for that fate to befall me. They all support me and my writing and my quests to make a difference in this difficult world, despite the fact that many of my choices have and continue to subject them to a less secure future than I am sure they would prefer.

Why?

Because our love for one another is secure, set in granite as tough as anything Mount Rushmore has to offer. The love between a parent and his or her children is not based on the mistakes that all of us imperfect humans make. It is based on a deeper understanding that each of us does whatever we can, to the best of our abilities, on behalf of everyone else in our family.

Tonight, on the verge of yet another Thanksgiving holiday that I will no doubt spend alone, due to financial and logistical circumstances beyond the control of any of us, I will still be giving thanks for what I have, as opposed to what I do not have.

Americans always yearn to return "home."

As for me, I have no such home, in the sense that no place exists where all of those I love could gather in true peace and love. But many others, far less fortunate than I am, share this fate, so I feel no self-pity.

I just hope that we all make it through yet another depressing fake holiday intact, able and willing to go forward, with some semblance of hope in our hearts. And that we can forgive those among us who no longer prove strong enough to do so. After all, an angel does not always show up at the right place and the right time, right?

And that's okay with me.

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Global Poverty

So, help me here. I know we here in the Home of the Brave and Land of the Free have entered hard times, from a middle class American perspective, though hardly from a global perspective.

Truly hard times will be when we start starving to death, which, of course, may yet happen in the U.S., as it did in the Depression 75 years ago, but I doubt it.

This country continues to maintain a huge advantage in resource consumption per person over the rest of the world. Why, exactly, do we deserve this position?

Only on the basis of military power. Thus we have many, diverse enemies, with more emerging from the ghettos and slums in Third World cities every single day.

We also have a young, brilliant, President-elect, who may be our last, best hope to survive the coming disaster that threatens to engulf all peace-loving people, not to mention all animals and plants around the globe.

Will we come together behind his leadership and find a new path to survival, or will we go the way of the Dinosaur.

As Bob Dylan would say, "the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind."

David's World

There's never a time that I visit New York, and come back home, that I do not think about a life that might have been. Manhattan is home to the traditional publishing industry. It has always had the power to make a writer a star, much as L.A. controls the future for aspiring actors.

By the time I was 19, I knew I was a writer, though there was no way, internally, that I could tell whether I was a run-of-the-mill writer, a hack, a very good writer, or something beyond all of that.

Like many writers, I've lived in a private world, all of my life. Inside David's World, everything is different than in the "real" world we share with one another. Much of my world is fantasy, most probably the type of fantasies that most others would find exceedingly bizarre.

For example, I live privately in a world of numbers. I see numbers, and the lovely patterns they reveal, all around me. There is a certain mathematical logic behind street signs, retail displays, emerging buildings, and backyards that gives me immense pleasure.



But, only as I've grown older have I come to understand that others see these visible aspects of our environment differently, that the patterns that mean so much to me can actually be defined as neuroses, i.e., coping mechanisms, not the beautiful swashes of art that display themselves to me.

***

I have a new book idea! Shall I reveal it here? I've been developing it over the past few months, as I've watched Obama sweep to victory, promising a new era of governing, while I work with my colleagues in Silicon Valley to launch a new version of our website.

Naturally, you can see where I am going. Government 2.0. You heard it here first.

The back of my house has been bolstered with new redwood studs and repainted salmon. Either my landlady is rolling in cash, or (as I suspect) this place is about to be put on the market.

Call me paranoid. I've been called worse things. But I hope I am wrong, because the kids and I want to remain here, for a few more years. We need to get them through high school and into college.

On the other hand, should my new book idea prove to be a runaway best-seller, perhaps I may soon be capable of buying this, or another appropriate home for my family.

I don't know anything, other what is going on inside my own head. Tonight, I am seeing the numbers of a people still hoping that tomorrow may be better than today. I see a young President-elect who understands his moment in history, and who therefore will be launching initiatives that can help us collectively get there.

So, in the end, from the writer who is me, the main message I have to offer is a simple one: Hope. It is, when you analyze Obama's speeches, essentially what he is offering.

Think of it this way. Either we collectively believe in tomorrow or we don't. I do. He does. What about you?



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Walkin' on Broadway

New York.

Letter From New York

This wonderful old city is hurting, as are all parts of America. For the first time in many years, I am again seeing homeless people, beggars, and panhandlers here in midtown Manhattan.

We are most likely on the verge of a major recession, perhaps even a depression. What I see here on the streets of New York is probably only the beginning. Even so, it is disconcerting.

Are we headed back to the '70s?

True Leadership: Climate Change

In my last post, I berated President-elect Obama and the Democratic leaders of Congress for their unwise (in my view) proclivity toward bailing out the "Big Three" automakers.

On that issue, my position remains unchanged. I stand with the Republicans and President Bush, and (I suspect) a large majority of regular Americans.

Tonight, we turn to a different and much more critical issue: Global climate change. This issue is deeply personal; for over 40 years, I have devoted much of whatever limited talent I may have as a reporter and writer to the issue of our common global environment.

The intensity of the issues have accelerated over the years. The threats we face as a species are far more frightening than those I was exploring when I was a much more naive, idealistic writer.

Then I just hoped we would heal the most egregious insults our way of life were inflicting on this, our common earth. Now, I worry about the fate my precious grandchildren may face if we do not quickly and decisively commit ourselves to a more aggressive program of alternative energy, containing greenhouse gases, saving the Artic and Antarctic ice sheets (if we can) not to mention species diversity, ecological balances, rainforests, wetlands, the oceans, and every other component of our inter-connected global ecology that we have not already destroyed to the point of no return.

We need to become modest.

I know what I am writing has no chance of happening. I am a faint voice, and the strength of my voice is fading.

Tonight, however, I am cheered by the words of our President-elect.

(11-18) 17:46 PST LOS ANGELES -- In his first speech on global warming since winning the election, President-elect Barack Obama promised Tuesday that he will set stringent limits on greenhouse gases, saying the need was too urgent for delay.

Many observers expected Obama to avoid tackling such a complex, contentious issue early in his administration. But in videotaped comments to the Governors' Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles on Tuesday, he called for immediate action.

"Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all," Obama said. "Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high, the consequences too serious."

Read the entire story here.

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My Republican Sunday

I oppose bailing out the Big Three auto companies. Therefore, I am standing with President Bush and the Republicans. President-elect Obama and the Democratic leaders in Congress have been advocating bailing out GM, Ford and Chrysler.

I'm afraid that, to me, this smacks of politics, not good policy. Of course, the Obama campaign is grateful to the UAW for helping deliver Michigan and Ohio to the Democrats. But that does not mean they need to return the favor -- if it is the wrong thing to do.

Let's consider why the Big Three are teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. First, they made bad cars, gas-guzzling SUVs long after any reasonable analysis of our common future would have concluded that we will have to be driving hybrids or alternative-fuel cars such as those the more progressive carmakers overseas are already offering.

Second, they have formed a devil's bargain wth corrupt unions, most specifically the UAW. Why should privileged union members be retiring at age 50, and then living off rich pensions, with health policies that have zero deductibles and zero co-pays when all the rest of us in America have no such privileges?

The beauty of bankruptcy is that the Big Three automakers can end these entitlements and re-establish themselves as companies for the 21st century, shedding these unrealistic contracts in favor of the work arrangements of the Japanese and European car-makers who are doing just fine, thank you, manufacturing autos in this country.

Therefore, count my vote with the GOP on this one.

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