October 9, 2013 Newsletter

By John Hammer

Charlotte Shelburne Rotary

Wednesday, October 9, 2013, 7:15 a.m.

Trinity Episcopal Church Community Room

Welcome

President Dave Jonah opened the meeting with the Pledge. Kris Engstrom gave the invocation.

Guests: Bill Eldridge from Shelburne, a guest of John Dupee

Teena Flood, a guest of Ric Flood

 

Quote of the Day: “

Word for the Day: Look for the * and definition at end.

 

Upcoming:

October 10 – Board Meeting

October 16 – Committee Meetings

October 12 – Volunteer cutting brush on Shelburne Nature Trail

October 23– Al Gobeille, Green Mountain Health Care

October 27 – Shelburne Halloween Parade

November 1 – Car Raffle – Shelburne Farms Coach Barn

April 25-27 – 7850 District Conference, Hilton Hotel, Burlington

District 7850 Calendar: Hot Link http://www.clubrunner.ca/Portal/Events/EventsCalendar.aspx?accountid=50051

Announcements

Shelburne Nature Trail Brush Work

Michael Clapp asked that volunteers be there at 0830 at the Nature Trail parking lot. Bring heavy work gloves, as much of the work will be clearing buckthorn bushes and trees.

Volunteer Activities

Michael Clapp reported that his construction crew of Rotary volunteers made good progress on finishing the composting bins in the new Charlotte Central School composting building on Friday. The crew included Michael, John Dupee, Bill Deming, Denny Bowen, and Russ Blodgett.

Car Raffle

Ric Flood announced that Car Raffle ticket sales are lagging with 52 committed. He and Robert Maynes will be calling the traditionally late buyers. Nevertheless, there will be lots of opportunities to buy tickets and he expects that we will need quite a few “pumpkin Raffle” tickets sold. He had 15 already bought and lacked 12 for a drawing today.  John Beal anted up for the twelve remaining, thinking he would greatly increase his chances. Alas, no, Linda Schiavonne won. This year’s tickets will be $275.

Shelburne Halloween Parade

In the inimitable* words of Parade Provost Emeritus Irv Rose, Dave Rive announced that the parade on October 27th, is almost “under control.”

A Remote Jim Spad Submission

It seems that Tiger Woods and Stevie Wonder were sitting in a bar. Stevie asked, “How’s your golfing going?” to which Tiger responded, “Not too bad, but my swing needs a little work.  How’s it going with you?”

Stevie replied, “I always find that when my swing goes wrong, I have to stop playing for a while and it improves by itself.” Tiger was astonished and asked, “You play golf,” to which Stevie replied, “Yes, I’ve been playing for years.” Tiger said, “How can you play, you’re blind?”

Stevie explained that “I get my caddy to lead me towards the hole and he calls to me. I hit the ball where I hear the sound. When I get to the green, same thing. I have him lie down and he calls from just behind the hole then I putt towards the sound.” 

Tiger: “That’s amazing, what’s your handicap?”

Stevie: “Well, I’m a scratch golfer.”

Tiger: That’s phenomenal, we have to play a round sometime.”

Stevie: “Well people don’t take me seriously, so I only play for money and I never play for anything less than $10,000 a hole.”

Tiger: “Well that’s not a problem, when would you like to play?”

Stevie: “Pick any night.”

Sergeant at Arms

Ric Flood – Happy that John Beal bellied up to the bar and bought all those pumpkin raffle tickets. Too bad he lost. Happy that Frank Bryan is here.

Adam Bartsch – Twentieth anniversary.

Tom Glaser – Sorry to have missed so many meetings, but will soon be making a two-week driving and flying trip. (Driving to Florida, flying to California, then Las Vegas, driving up to Park City, then back to Philadelphia by jet and driving back home from there). The beauty of it all is that the flight segments will be aboard the private jet of a friend.

Linda Schiavonne – Frank Bryan’s being here.

Trafton Crandall – Hosted a stunningly beautiful wedding of the last of his daughters in the Hamptons.

Dennis Webster – Happy that Professor Bryan is here to explain to us what is or is not happening in Washington.

Denny Bowen – For the lunch for the compost building workers at 4PM.

Michael Clapp – For attending the beautiful wedding of Trafton Crandall’s daughter.

Tod Whitaker – Finally has a granddaughter after having to wait a week for her to appear and to celebrate the last farmers’ market.

Chris Davis – Happy his father (89) has had an opportunity to sail from Southampton yesterday aboard the Queen Mary.

Richard Fox – The win by the Boston Red Sox last night putting them into the running for the World Series.

Joan Lennes – Happy for her thirty-third anniversary and for the wonderful farmer’s market that Tod has put on.

Kris Engstrom – Going to Michigan for a family reunion.

Carol Obuchowski – The fantastic weather after such rainy months of June and July

Roz Graham – For the wonderful farmers’ market.

John Hammer – For a fantastic three week trip to Montenegro and Croatia, topped off by a high society wedding at the NY Yacht Club in Newport, RI last weekend. Thank you Roz for doing all the newsletters in his absence.

Linda Gilbert – This is the first week in the last ten without visitors staying at her house.

Carol Obuchowski number was called and she drew the Queen of Spades.  Roll over the pot of $191.50.

Speaker – Frank Bryan, Retired Political Science Professor from UVM.

Frank spoke on the subject “Why the Federal Government doesn’t work in thirty minutes or less.”  He began by saying that the academic world leans far to the left and that its erudite members who write so many books and papers miss the point that it is the organizations like this local Rotary that exert a tremendous impact on American society. They don’t pay enough attention to the effect these local organizations have on society. In his words, “It’s huge!”

Does the American government work? Yes, it does work, it’s designed not to work, therefore, it works perfectly. The Constitution was formed under fear of big government, so it is designed to protect government from getting too much power.  A central government was feared in the original thirteen states and so the Constitution was written in this way so that the states would support it.

The framers were worried about the tyranny of the majority so they expanded the scope of government in order that the powers of different interests would be cancelled out.  They created a central government with fixed elections. That keeps matters up in the air. A parliamentary system has a general vote every time a decision cannot be made. The decision then goes to the voters as a whole. Here, the votes come around in a cycle and the contentious issues aren’t resolved until the scheduled elections can be held.

In the case of the U.S., policies have flowed to the center where they are stymied by the system of checks and balances. As the need for programs grows, so also do the departments of government that fit within the Executive Branch and power flows away from the states. At first the intellectuals and entrepreneurial powers were centered in the East where they were able to control the size and shape of the central government.  As the West was opened, they moved out and their influence on the central government became  diluted. They weren’t near the government where they could make problems.

The result of all this was that the policies decided by the central government have increased while this archaic system of checks and balances has remained the same, thus the logjam type of government we presently have. In the final analysis, “We created a system at the center with elections that are written in stone, we have to have them at a certain time. We created two houses. The president can veto a bill, the House and Senate can then override him, the president can appoint judges but it has to be approved by the Congress. You know all these checks and balances …. That’s the system you have in Washington today … that system structurally hasn’t changed much in 200 years…. We have that 200-year-old technology governing a nation in which the policy has flowed to the center… That has left us with this archaic system of checks and balances…. Right now the government is working just like we want it to. No one is in charge. And that’s good.  We didn’t want anybody to be in charge. The trouble is that over the years, of course, we put them in charge without giving them the tools to do something.”

“The government is what we want it to be.”

Q&A –

Is there a fix? – Probably not. He suspects it is an invented problem (He called them weather fronts) that might die from public apathy. There is no way for the American public to speak except through public opinion polls. The elections of representatives and senators generally reflect those voters in their constituencies, not always the feelings of the nation at large.

Do you think that there is more partisanship now -  No, they had duels in the house early in the 19th Century. Roosevelt had massive attacks from partisanship. We expect to have voted in statesmen when who we have elected are just people like us. The political rhetoric was much more vicious in the 19th Century. It’s TV that has brought it all to our attention.

What is your opinion on a government where the democracy doesn’t always rule – It was never envisioned that details would be decided by a central government. For instance it’s madness to assume that we could have national educational standards. “We are trying to pound detail into the complexities of human life.” When it comes to substantive issues, what is more substantive than universal healthcare. The only things that will get through Congress is by definition: mediocre. The result is then given to the bureaucrats that then have to clean them up.

Regarding the healthcare issue. What is the role of the legislator? Should they vote as their constituents say? Or should they vote their view of what is good for the country? – Poli-Sci 101 That’s called the political or the trustee model. In the political model, you are elected to serve your constituents. In the trustee model you are elected to promote the common good according to your own dictates. There is no agreement among political scientists as to which should hold true.  That is left up to the electorate. It’s a great  question to ask a potential candidate. That’s a dilemma. We built the government to represent the states. In a parliamentary system, your party is turfed out if the majority doesn’t like it.

Definition – Inimitable, adj.– matchless.

 

Audio of Frank’s Presentation