Bush doctrine strangled Northland residents

By RON BROCHU

Since the 1960s, Duluth-Superior has seldom been uttered in the same breath as “prosperity,” so residents have grown not to expect much beyond inherent natural beauty and the clean, safe environment. But today’s challenge is much more difficult than usual, thanks to debilitating policies promoted by the Bush administration.
While corporate executives floated to soft landings beneath their golden parachutes:

• 1,900 residents of St. Louis and Douglas counties lost their jobs from January through November, about 1.4 percent of the workforce.

• 7 percent of Duluthians had no jobs in November, according to the latest figures, the highest rate in nearly five years.

Meanwhile:

• Minnesota’s jobless rate climbed to 6.4 percent – double the 3.2 percent when Bush was inaugurated in January 2001.

• Wisconsin’s rate was 5.6 percent compared with 3.7 percent when Bush took office.

Pain regionally and nationwide was triggered by federal decisions designed to generate baskets of money for people just like Bush—those who benefit when government turns its back on long-standing lending and investment regulations. When the house of cards finally toppled, even the wealthy couldn’t recover their losses, forcing Washington to bail out their best campaign contributors.

Dangerously dumb

If lies were money, George Bush would have become the world’s richest man instead of an icon for blissful ineptitude and failure.

While combining free market nonsense with delusions of grandeur, he dragged America out of the fast lane straight into a gaping sinkhole that’s devouring middle class dreams from Pennsylvania Avenue to Skyline Parkway.

According to MSN Money, his presidency cost the country about $11.5 trillion. In contrast, the United States had a $150 billion surplus when President Bill Clinton left office.


Nobody escaped the financial trauma inflicted by the unnecessary $3 trillion Iraq war and multi-billion-dollar bailouts designed to salvage irresponsible Wall Street banks and brokers. Each of us has a story.


About the time Bush Too was elected, I covered northwestern Wisconsin as a business reporter. My stories focused on an overheated economy. Resorts and restaurants from Hayward to Grand Marais were hiring foreign students because full employment had created a shortage of local workers. Fast food joints were paying a couple bucks over minimum wage just to cover their shifts. Property values, particularly for lake parcels, were climbing out of sight. Times were good, but much has changed.


Like many others, my earnings today have declined versus 2001, considering inflation. Like society’s aspirations, journalism and the quest for truth stumbled badly during the Bush presidency, tripped by years of top-level skullduggery that threatened freedom and privacy. The raging economy has been replaced by raging unemployment, record profits by record foreclosures.


Even worse, most educated people, including President Barack Obama, say the worst is yet to come.


My mailbox in December contained a letter from Wells Fargo that illustrates how Bush and his reckless advisors infected the worlds of government and business.


“In a recent account review, we noticed that you have not used your line of credit…for over a year. Since your account was inactive…it has been closed,” wrote corporate vice president Richard Nelson.


His words reflect a rather strange arrogance, considering that Uncle Sam invested $25 billion in Wells Fargo to ensure customers would continue to receive credit. But hubris and corporate handouts walked hand-in-hand during the Bush years – at least for the president’s friends. Firms like Blackwater and Halliburton exhibited both traits with impunity, so why not financial institutions?


Supported by the Troubled Assets Relief Program (“The Bailout”), Wells Fargo followed the most troubling path, purchasing Wachovia Corp., which was choking on toxic investments. The purchase nudged Wells Fargo closer to becoming the nation’s largest bank, increasing its corporate stature. But the investment hasn’t impressed stockholders. Trading at $44.30 on Sept. 19, the bank’s stock price has fallen to the $18-$19 range, contributing to its new credit conservatism. The stated intent of TARP, however, was to loosen credit and spark rebounds in the ailing real estate and automotive sectors.

Lies and damned lies

So far, $350 billion in TARP money has flowed from taxpayers to big business with few strings attached, and without any meaningful administrative restraint.

The inattentive gatekeepers included Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the TARP czar unhindered by traditional inconveniences such as congressional oversight, and also the Fed, which has refused to reveal which companies are receiving TARP welfare. But accountability was never important to Bush or his ilk, as Americans learned when weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq and torture was secretly sanctioned in Abu Ghraib. Nobody in Washington was ever deemed responsible. Quite the opposite, in fact. Recall that Bush praised Donald Rumsfeld even as the outgoing defense secretary resigned in obvious disgrace.


The fallout, unfortunately, is landing everywhere. Local residents have lost millions in their retirement accounts as stock prices precipitously decline. That forces retirees to spend less at malls, grocery stores, car lots and other places that provide jobs for working age residents. Food shelves are suffering from fewer donations, and the same can be said of other charities that support poor and homeless people throughout the Twin Ports.


Meanwhile, joblessness and uncertainty have convinced many that now isn’t the time to change homes or buy new vehicles. Even those who are still employed fear the recession could deepen, and their instinct is to spend less.


That’s grim news in a metro that was on the rebound. Residential construction in Duluth-Superior has stopped, with some new condo and townhome units sitting unoccupied for months. Talk has ceased about the potential Murphy Oil refinery expansion, as the possibility of finding a multi-billion-dollar private investor has virtually disappeared. Even a downtown walk along Superior Street reflects the downturn, the Athletic Club Deli being the latest victim.


It’s bad enough that some presidents – Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford – didn’t live up to expectations. George W. Bush, however, whipped America into a tailspin from which we may not recover. At the very least, our offspring will be paying the price for decades, and have nothing to show for it.


Published in the Jan. 23, 2009, Northland Reader


Author Ron Brochu archives his stories at www.ronbrochublog.com, where your comment is encouraged.

Digital TV offers faster speeds, better mileage

By RON BROCHU

By this time next month, Duluth’s antenna farm will blanket the Northland with digital TV signals in a foolish technology change that’s already outdated.

Proponents of the analog-to-digital transformation contend the move will improve picture quality, allow broadcasters to offer more channels and help emergency responders by giving them the former TV frequencies. Their overhyped message, however, overlooks much and paints a thin glossy sheen over system flaws.

We need look only at the recent past to debunk claims of improved quality. It’s the same argument made to promote the replacement of vinyl recordings with CDs, and analog cell phones with digital units. The argument for CDs was that they wouldn’t skip like vinyl. That was a crock, crock, crock, crock, crock, crock, crock, crock, crock, crock. Digital cellular, meanwhile, was going to be crystal clear. “Ca you h r me ow?”

Indeed, digital will allow local TV broadcasters to offer more channels. With the same half-million watts, they can pump out several signals. That ignores the fact, however, that just as many signals can be carried to any location in North America by a few satellites that consume only a couple hundred watts of solar energy. So why waste all the costly, scarce fossil fuel to power transmitters in every burb coast-to-coast?

This argument also fails to address the issue of whether local broadcasters can afford to provide multiple channels, particularly in small metros like Duluth-Superior. The advertising pie hasn’t grown in decades. Every year, the slices grow thinner. In a no-growth market, expansion is only possible at the expense of another player. There’s not enough advertising revenue for everybody to survive.

Moreover, how will those additional stations be managed? Hopefully, the common ownership of multiple radio stations won’t serve as the example. Can you say “dead air?” Or how about stations that simultaneously play two overlapping commercials? It’s the electronic equivalent of an erection that lasts more than four hours. Enough already!

The need for emergency responders to have more frequency spectrum grew out of the 9-11 attacks, when intra-agency communication failed miserably. But the added channels are useless unless municipalities can afford new equipment, and most of them can’t. The added channels will be useless without equipment that can put them to use.

A few things are for sure.

• The digital conversion has provided a cash infusion to overseas manufacturers. They’re working overtime to export flat-panel TVs to the United States, increasing our trade deficit.

• Old analog TVs will be cast aside in large number when the conversion takes place. Rather than paying a recycling fee, some owners will carelessly dump them in landfills, ditches or other inappropriate places.

• Some unscrupulous “recyclers” will merely export old televisions to foreign outfits that burn or bury the toxic components, endangering the environment in other countries. Out of sight, out of mind, eh?

But the conversion has some advantages. It will allow Americans to observe their financial demise in high definition. And if president-elected Barack Obama offers another taxpayer incentive package, which is likely, we could learn whether average people use the money to buy necessities or immediately squander it on enormous mind-numbing flat-screen TVs. In our entitlement-oriented society, the answer could be shocking, for most people believe we deserve that bigger, crisper picture even as the economy crumbles – just as they believe we deserve 20 percent annual growth in stock, bond and real estate values – at a minimum.

The digital revolution, unfortunately, has its limits. It won’t propel Duluth out of its budget deficit, Minnesota out of its revenue shortfall nor America out of its credit collapse. No amount of hype, including constant televised ticker-tape messages, will squeeze the city’s retiree healthcare costs into a beautiful new spectrum devoid of whining retired cops. Darn!

Hopefully, the digital signals will perform better when transmitters are raised to full power. Currently, some channels are nothing to brag about, pixilating or disappearing entirely only a mile from Observation Hill. Expect an uproar if the service doesn’t improve.

The conversion’s success could influence the less-hyped move to digital radio, which is taking off like a herd of turtles.

Like digital TV, digital radio more logically would be broadcast from low-power satellites, but that won’t happen. And it also will greatly benefit foreign manufacturers, because American companies no longer make radios, or much of anything for that matter, because we have labor laws and pollution controls. So we can anticipate more U.S. dollars flowing to emerging nations that soon will have a higher standard of living than America, despite their filthy air and water.

This country, by the way, lags others in the digital conversion, just as it lags others in providing broadband internet access – even as we pat ourselves on the back thinking America leads the pack. Our internet access also is among the costliest when compared with other nations, and providers are paving the way to make it even more expensive by limiting the volume of information we can receive without paying a surcharge.

They contend it’s to prevent heavy users from clogging the system, but many believe the true intent is to prevent people from watching the equivalent of television via computer. That, of course, would offer competition to cable TV giants, which seek to monopolize their highly overpriced services, including “bundles” that cost far more than buying individual components from separate providers.

Author Ron Brochu knows a ruse when he sees one. He archives his ramblings at www.ronbrochublog.com, where your comments will be posted whether they make sense or not.

Published in the Jan. 16, 2009 Northland Reader

Canadians will resolve Duluth Heights traffic problem

By RON BROCHU

The solution could be worse than the problem for Duluth Heights residents plagued by discourteous East Enders who race down residential streets en route to Miller Hill stores.

City councilors next week will debate whether to further restrict local traffic to cope with boorish sots who can’t see fit to drive Arlington Avenue between Arrowhead Road and Central Entrance. Councilors will consider a plan that would close Ideal Street and forbid east-bound traffic on a portion of Maple Grove Road as the next logical step to discourage “cut-through” driving. That’s in addition to existing Eklund Avenue barriers designed to prevent locals from being smacked down by drivers who view the neighborhood as their private shortcut.

In a letter to Heights residents, city engineers offer one alternative – remove the temporary Eklund Avenue barriers. That, of course, would be akin to waving a green flag at outside motorists.

The Maple Grove Road restrictions are hardly fair to those who live and pay taxes in the neighborhood. In essence, Heights homeowners would be penalized because outsiders refuse to drive along established thoroughfares.

Additionally, it would force neighborhood motorists to further congest Central Entrance, where rush hour traffic has become intolerable. Each day, more drivers are using East Palm Street to circumvent the 4:30 p.m. bottleneck between Central High School and Arlington Avenue.

The proposals will be reviewed by city councilors at the 6 p.m. committee of the whole meeting on Monday (Jan. 12).

It’s possible the discussion will be moot. Duluth-Superior will soon become part of a new country having ties with Canada, according to a bizarre scenario being advanced by a Russian academic.

The United States will fall apart next year, strangled by economic and moral decay, believes Igor Panarin, dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s academy for future diplomats.

“There's a 55-45 percent chance right now that disintegration will occur," Panarin, 50, said in the Wall Street Journal’s Dec. 28 edition. More specifically, he claimed the aforementioned decay – aided by uncontrolled immigration and collapse of the U.S. dollar – will spark civil war.

America, predicts the former KGB analyst, will split six ways along geographic lines, with our neck of the woods becoming the Central North American Republic. Presumably, we’d be answering to Ottowa instead of Washington, Prime Minister Stephen Harper rather than President Barack Obama, Ontario Premier Dalton James Patrick McGuinty rather than Govs. Tim Pawlenty and Jim Doyle.

The change might be advantageous for the Twin Ports, where residents already speak Canadian, drink Molson and worship Alanis Morissette. For instance, Minnesotans could nudge Pawlenty off of his Republican bully pulpit, from which he has vociferously chastised Duluth for being too spendy. There’s little appetite for his fiscal conservatism among our neighbors to the north, although Pawlenty may get some street cred for supporting a larger DECC hockey arena. In the new world order, he and other heavy-handed Republicans will be banished to Fargo, which will become a prison city for wealthy ingrates.

Doyle may survive, given his leftward leanings, but he would have to park the cheesehead and embrace the constitutional monarchy form of government. That could prove difficult. His primary skills are fundraising and pleading ignorance when state contracts land in the hands of overstuffed campaign donors. Those abilities aren’t needed given Canada’s brief election cycles and electoral process.

Unlike remaining regions of the former United States, the Great North American Republic would benefit from Canada’s single-payer health insurance. Small businesses could again afford to insure their employees, and governmental agencies – including cities, counties and school districts – wouldn’t have to constantly wrangle with unions over upwardly spiraling healthcare costs.

A substantially uglier scenario would emerge for America’s existing health system, which is controlled by profiteers and legislative lobbyists, designed primarily to benefit stockholders rather than patients. As the party fizzles, healthcare execs would have to adapt to a life without backdated options, forcing them to drive Lincolns instead of Acuras.

At the street level, Duluthians may actually be able to trade their SUVs for standard cars. Unlike the existing United States, Canada actually invests in its roads, replacing broken pavement with smooth new concrete. Its potholes aren’t large enough to swallow Toyotas, unlike the moonscape left in Duluth by mayors Fedo, Doty and Bergson.

Taxes, unfortunately, would be higher. But society would not collapse, as existing American politicians have led us to believe, nor would freedom disappear, as is evident in Canada and Scandinavian countries that lean toward socialism.

Is Panarin for real or just another publicity hound? It’s anyone’s guess, eh?

Author Ron Brochu archives his stories at www.ronbrochublog.com. He invites your comments.
Published in the Jan. 9, 2009 Northland Reader.

‘Drink baby drink,’ before the party’s over

By RON BROCHU

In the simplistic doll parts world of Sarah Palin, let’s “drink baby drink” on New Year’s Eve. We’re about to board the pain train, and our sensibilities best be numb when Robin Washington and Ken Buehler stoke it toward 2009 at 130 miles per hour.

So far, a trillion-dollar bailout hasn’t derailed the Hell-Bound Express. Even the confidence that accompanies a new president hasn’t generated much hope. So grim is the approaching crash that grown men lay awake at night fearing their snow machines might be repossessed by gun-toting bankers just before a long winter weekend. Even worse, a growing number of jobless households can no longer afford Viagara, thrusting America into a future bereft of drug- induced pleasure – as if the loss of fake wealth wasn’t bad enough.

Sans a miracle, there’s nothing “Happy” to be associated with the coming “New Year,” not even in Lake Wobegon. With the threat of ED constantly blasted into our ears by flaccid television hucksters, including athletes we had envisioned as macho, we haven’t noticed that foreign pawn brokers are buying America for pennies on the dollar, launching a bloodless coup more dangerous than anything al-Qaida has fired our way.

But that’s not a concern in Duluth. The local fear is that neither Asian nor Arab entrepreneurs are stepping forward to deconstruct Great Lakes Aquarium. Their cash is badly needed to recast the sad rubble into wide boulevards on which East Enders can more-recklessly speed through Duluth Heights en route to the mall. After all, we wouldn’t want to blemish Lakeside with hideous commercial development, particularly stores that sell fermented beverages. Better to quarantine such trade in neighborhoods occupied by winos and other blue-collar rummies.

The horror! The horror!

Yes, this will be a challenging year in the Great White North.

• The city of Duluth will struggle from state funding cuts. Union employees will continue to whine about the loss of “work,” a refined way of saying “we want our stinking money!” and we don't give a damn if it thrusts Duluth into bankruptcy. They’ll refuse to acknowledge the revenue shortfall or accept any responsibility to formulate a solution, but instead will blame Mayor Don Ness, his predecessors, successors, friends and relatives. Taxpayers, however, will remain unsympathetic.
  
  
• School Board members will continue to ignore constituents and build Cadillac schools in a Chevy district. Mindlessly following constructionist Keith Dixon, just as they mindlessly followed Julio Almanza’s inert agenda, they will mimic bobbleheads every time the superintendent sentences taxpayers to fund expensive capital experiments and other poorly studied schemes that even teachers deem ridiculous.
  
  
• If the stars align, cash-strapped Duluthians might start listening when Gov. Tim Pawlenty waxes indignant about excessive local spending. Finally hit in the pocketbook, taxpayers may finally begin to question why so much municipal money is spent on non-essential services while their neighborhoods become more dangerous by the day and streets crumble underfoot.
  
  
• An unprofessional core of St. Louis County commissioners will continue to behave like pubescent boys. To demonstrate their power, they’ll hand the county administrator job to interim honcho Alan Mitchell, who will permanently oversee the area’s largest tax sinkhole and let boys act like boys. Local reporters, who think the mil rate is a new appetizer at the Green Mill, won’t cover the story until an irreversible vote has already been taken.
  
  
• Even as the OmniMax Theatre and Great Lakes Aquarium bleed dry, consultants will continue to paint a rosy picture of the proposed high-speed Duluth-Twin Cities train. Like weather forecasters and computer techs, consultants will draw bloated paychecks even if their work is flawed -- even if it’s pure nonsense designed only to endorse what promoters and politicians want to hear. When the venture fails miserably, nobody will be held accountable, just as nobody has been outed for the theater and aquarium failures. Again, taxpayers will eat the tab, and again, they’ll re-elect the same Democrats who repeatedly secure federal grants for doomed ventures, using it to leverage state loans, which in turn leverages local bonds in a gamble better suited for a casino. All the while, experienced private sector businessmen remain silent for fear of endangering their own sweetheart TIF deals.

That’s the dire picture in a city where financial and political incompetence has become institutionalized. Those of us who stay here obviously support this brand of ineffective hocus pocus, even as Duluth gasps for air. Rather than speak up, opponents flee to Hermantown, Proctor, Esko, Carlton, Wrenshall and Cloquet, where there’s less of an appetite for sure failure.

It’s a recipe for disaster that could bear an abundance of fruit as the economy degenerates during 2009.

Writer Ron Brochu barks like a rabid dog during lapses when he can’t afford professional therapy. He archives his goofy ramblings at www.ronbrochublog.com and invites others to join the rant, even though most people, including outright misfits, have better things to do.

Published in the Dec. 26 Northland Reader.

Mindlessly groping for fat, daily rags eat the seed corn

By RON BROCHU

Most people won’t buy a crappy car, and few automakers would survive if their vehicles offered less and less each year. Same goes for every other product on the market. Who would buy a new smaller model that offered fewer features than the last one? Customers want more and better, and they sure won’t pay more to receive less. Imagine the reaction if Wal-Mart adopted a new slogan: “Pay More, Get Less.”

Ironically, that’s the direction daily newspapers are heading. Fewer local stories. Subscriptions that cost more. Higher advertising rates. It’s a fatal business plan that publishers refresh each time profits droop.

As if that’s not bad enough, editors pen columns about the fantastic bargain newspapers offer customers, who they obviously regard as money-burning idiots. It raises an obvious question: How can readers trust anything the publication says when its top dog utters such nonsense?

Pure and simple, fear and desperation are gripping the industry as it’s being weaned from a fat hog. For decades, daily newspaper publishers have sought profits in the range of 20-40 percent, raising advertising rates to support their tremendous appetites. With bellies bulging past their brows, they’ve not noticed the inability of advertisers to pay their growing rates – from local retailers to the average Joe selling his Chivvy.

Which brings us to last Monday, when one of America’s largest newspaper firms became the first to declare bankruptcy. Tribune Co., publisher of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and numerous smaller newspapers, sought court protection from its creditors. Tribune won’t be the last. Since midyear, the Minneapolis Star Tribune has been unable to repay its debt and is high on the list of Chapter 11 candidates.

Losing readers to the Internet is a growing problem in the forlorn world of daily rags. But for many newspapers, debt is the bigger issue. Acquisition frenzy erupted following the senseless breakup of Knight Ridder Inc., former owner of the Duluth News Tribune, St. Paul Pioneer Press and about 30 other dailies. By and by, a series of America’s biggest newspapers were acquired by companies that borrowed heavily just before the economy fell into freefall. Declines in auto and real estate advertising have left publishers unable to repay their ridiculous debt loads, and the credit crisis has prevented restructuring.

Duluthians have witnessed it before (with devastating results) when Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc. followed a poisoned pill strategy to avoid hostile takeover by Robert Maxwell. In the aftermath, William Jovanovich put his publications division for sale to secure a quick cash influx. A local acquisition group led by Robert Edgell bought the property in a highly leveraged deal that closed shortly before the economy tanked. As failure became unavoidable, Edgell leaped to his death during a Thanksgiving dinner.

Desperation has a troubling rhythm that triggers wrongheaded decisions. For instance, newspaper owners today believe they can cut their way to profitability, even though they’ve already sliced through muscle into the bone. Nervous editors are sacking anyone who earns too much money – in other words, their most experienced reporters and middle managers. They’re also dumping their most interesting content – the features that competitors lack the time and/or staff to duplicate – along with high-demand add-ons such as TV listings.

To be kind, let’s call it “shortsighted” rather than something more appropriate, like “suicidal.” How long can shortsightedness survive during a lengthy downturn? Hard to tell, but its shelf life certainly is shorter for companies having significant debt. That includes Forum Communications, which borrowed from a consortium of lenders to buy the DNT, its affiliated area publications, and the Grand Forks Herald. Because the company is privately held, its financial strength is a closely held secret. Its aggressive local cuts, however, suggest finances are a concern. Perhaps losses are not an issue. Maybe the concern is just to ensure the Trib remains a cash cow, an admirable goal in the self-infatuated publishers’ club.
There are historical certainties.

• The Trib and other dailies won’t grow back to their former physical size, even if newsprint prices decline. While editors often blame their woes on paper prices, they’re silent when prices drop, which is a certainty. Excess manufacturing capacity prevents paper firms from sustaining higher prices.
  
  
• Former features won’t return. Once they disappear, they’re gone for good. Even if those features were popular, editors hate to admit they acted in error. It’s an ego thing. Most believe they were ordained, not hired, into the profession.
  
  
• Efforts to mimic gossip tabloids will fail at the local level. People love a screaming headline trashing Britney Spears; they cancel subscriptions when the venom is directed toward Aunt Millie.

Former Superior Daily Telegram Editor Ron Brochu saw the light after being booted from the ranks. He archives his articles at www.ronbrochublog.com and invites your silly comments.

Published in the Dec. 12 Northland Reader.

Sickos fuel the need for drastic action

By RON BROCHU

Denial? Lack of knowledge? Neither justify the lack of strong policies to prevent sexual impropriety in a school system, or any other institution – especially where children are present. So it’s troubling that the Superior School district again finds itself grappling with such allegations.

In 2006, a Superior student accused music instructor Brian MacDonnell of conducting himself inappropriately during a lesson in which the teacher and student were alone in a classroom. To its credit, the district refused to renew MacDonnell’s contract, and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction in September declined to renew his teaching license.

But in recent weeks, allegations of another incident have emerged. And again, a student and adult were alone – a circumstance that gives the older person a disproportionate ability to manipulate a child and to deny any accusations that might arise. This time, a former school teacher faces a charge of third degree sexual assault. Hennepin County investigators say retired instructor William Rehnstrand assaulted a Superior High School student while mentoring the boy with his senior project. According to a criminal complaint, the incident occurred in Eden Prairie, Minn. Rehnstrand, who is credited with founding the mock trial program in Wisconsin, served on the Superior School Board when the incident allegedly occurred. He resigned that post without explanation on Sept. 22.

Those familiar with child sexual abuse know it typically occurs within the family – or the extended family. Court documents typically paint a situation in which a relative or domestic partner, a person the child usually trusts, initiates abuse while providing care in the absence of parents. Overall, a minority of abuse occurs in other settings, although it tends to receive the most attention, particularly when clergy are involved.

Although the minority of abuse occurs within institutions, they must work harder to ensure sexual abuse is not facilitated through their policies, or lack thereof, and that’s the issue in Superior. In fact, it’s an issue nationwide, having emerged during the presidential campaign, when Republicans took the wrong position for the wrong reason.

GOP operatives purchased ads stating Barack Obama wanted to initiate sex education in kindergarten. Trying to paint Obama as intruding on parental rights, they didn’t explain he was merely advocating a “good-touch-bad touch” program – which already exists for older kids in many communities. It’s inconceivable that a problem as insidious as child sexual abuse would be politicized in this way, but there’s always an element of society that puts its own interests above those of others – including society’s most vulnerable members.

Outside of the political realm, however, some other groups have learned the value of abuse education, including Boy Scouts of America. In Duluth, PAVSA provides an excellent program in which Scouts and their leaders receive instruction in separate rooms. Boys are told how to recognize abuse and urged to report it. Leaders are told to never be alone with boys, and to avoid any type of contact that might be interpreted as suspicious. The Scouting program forbids its leaders from leading boys in the absence of another adult. There always must be at least two leaders present.

And that’s the program flaw that must be addressed by the Superior School district. It’s not a simple one, because students often must seek after-class homework assistance. Both students and staff, however, must understand that such contact can’t be allowed in a society that has lost so much innocence.

The task isn’t impossible. Many schools already are equipped with cameras. It’s time some of them are pointed at instructors. Teachers probably would find the practice invasive and demeaning, but when fighting crimes against children, it’s not fair to monitor some perpetrators while exempting others.

Sadly, the latest incident, if the allegation proves true, occurred within Superior’s senior project program, which challenges kids to firmly demonstrate their mettle before receiving a diploma. It’s a program that deserves to be continued. But without question, one-on-one student-mentor gatherings should be prohibited. This point should be driven home strongly and clearly to students, teachers, parents and the community.

The need for such vigilance is unfortunate, because the overwhelming number of educators are hard-working, intelligent, dedicated individuals who never would harm a student in any way. The number of bad apples nationally is exceedingly low, but their crimes cast a large shadow that can’t be ignored.

Author Ron Brochu welcomes your comments.

Published in the Nov. 21, 2008 Reader Weekly

Campaigns play cruel joke on Northland

By RON BROCHU

Politicians promised much during their recent campaigns, particularly in terms of a stronger economy and plentiful jobs. Sandwiched among accusations of immoral character, socialistic tendencies and financial impropriety, voters were told shiny, happy people will hold hands from Seattle to Miami, Fond du Lac to East End, during the rebound that explodes once we imprison investment bankers, renounce NAFTA, slash corporate taxes and stop redistributing wealth, depending on your silly beliefs.

Despite good intentions, nobody can guarantee communal prosperity, particularly not through partisan economics. At best, such commitments are wishful thinking. At worst, they’re outright lies – right up there with digital phones offering crystal-clear audio quality. Say what?

To pepper the Twin Ports with such off-handed campaign jive is a cruel joke. The current recession is just the latest among several downturns to spotlight that our economy sags worse than Salvador Dali’s vision of life. Forty years in search of recovery, Duluth and Superior are on an economic roller coaster, with job gains typically offset by job losses, new investment by consolidation, decent wages replaced by subsistence pay. Living here requires patience and continuous sacrifice. Patience is essential because it could take a lifetime to find that one perfect job. Continuous sacrifice because your perfect Duluth job probably will never pay on par with the same position in a stronger market. And God help the poor sot who loses that perfect job.

We all thought conditions were improving, with a $6 billion Superior refinery expansion – a dream disseminated more by local reporters than Murphy Oil – and extensive new Iron Range mining investment. Then we learned that pro-business, pro-jobs politicians of every stripe rendered those developments virtually impossible by facilitating the credit crisis and market collapse. Even the stealthiest investors lost their fortunes in a greedy extravaganza fit for Caligula. Today, thanks to Congress, the near-term prospect for multi-billion-dollar investment is slimmer than the potential for expanding a refinery with oil prices in free fall.

For area job holders, many of whom are underemployed, the credit crisis represents another dark day after an age of darkness. Placing investment on hold reiterates the fact that Tommy Toad, the high school idiot who moved to Colorado, is making more money selling truck tires than Don Ness earns trying to unravel Duluth’s municipal catastrophe. It just ain’t fair.

The scenario is much worse for jobless individuals. A quick look at employment sites reveals a stark reality: Few people qualify for those long-promised high-paying industrial jobs. Wanna work on the Range? Hope you can weld, drive a 40-ton truck and swing a crane. By itself, a high school degree won’t open the gate, much less the hiring manager’s door – not even for a sympathy interview with cousin Bob. Even a college degree in the wrong specialty can be worthless.

At best, heavy industry might employ our children or grandchildren, but only if they’ve secured the proper credentials – a two-year technical degree at minimum, with four-year engineering credentials preferred. The rest of us better hone our telemarketing skills, head back to school or hope the Food Shelf opens a store within walking distance.

Lowering the bar

The U.S. Senate campaign featuring Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken set new lows for both parties in Minnesota, if not the nation. Rivaling a cage match between Dr. X and Mad Dog Vachon, their faceoff redefined rude politics, although both will claim the worst ads were sponsored by outside groups. Note, however, that neither candidate asked their supporters to hold off from making third-party, stomach-turning accusations.

On a brighter note, however, they collectively hastened the demise of America’s two-party system. Unfortunately, it won’t happen fast enough. Independent Dean Barkley was unable to profit from the banal Coleman-Franken diatribe, which is difficult to comprehend. If Barkley had the pizzazz of Jesse Ventura, he might have pulled it off, but his personality and reputation weren’t sufficiently audacious to rally the nauseated, disenfranchised folks who simply stayed home Tuesday.

Apparently, it has come to that – a political system that depends upon the groin shot, rabbit bunch and show biz personalities. And may the richest, sickest candidate win.

Author Ron Brochu invites your feedback.

Published in the Nov. 7, 2008 Reader Weekly