Brookfield Basics

The decision has been made and Aldi's is coming.

There was no reason to deny Aldi's occupancy of that building, and the Town Board's unanimious vote to appove it showed good sense and judgment.  Competition is efficacious for consumers, and our community will now have an additional option for grocery shopping.  This can only be a good thing, particularly at a time of rampant inflation in food prices. 

But what I want to explore is the reaction this matter generated.  When this issue was being considered by the Town Board, Brookfield Now offered an on-line forum where people were able to enter their opinions and views on whether or not the Town should allow Aldi's to open a store at Bluemound Plaza.  The comments were not only prolific, many were intense, almost incendiary.  There is no question that it exposed a tap-root of emotion and sentiment, most of which was rabidly anti-Brookfield.  

Perception is reality, so I say - fair enough. 

But it got me wondering about the people that live in this community.  To hear us described on the pages of NOW, we are little more than affluent elitists, langorously idling away our time in hammocks, all while wondering if our Great Danes need grooming, or agonizing over the quandry of whether to use the Jag or the Mercedes for our drive to the club.  There is no question that the Town and City of Brookfield and the Village of Elm Grove are home to some people of considerable means.  But the more relevant question remains this - does that reality define the collective character of the individuals comprising these communities?

The financial means of my parents was at best, modest.  They carved out a good life for their family, often denying themselves things that today are deemed necessities, so that their kids would have what they needed.  While we never lacked for anything critical, it was clear to us as we grew up that at times they struggled financially.  This background was the source of a major culture shock when I attended a small, liberal arts college in Michigan.  There was a lot of money there - and I mean BIG money.  Suddenly I was hanging with and dating eighteen year old kids who had nicer cars than my parents, had grown up in country clubs and prep. schools, and had never once in their young lives encountered the notion of financial limitation.  I admit to having some resentment at the time.  Who are you, I thought, to have all these things that my parents didn't have?

While there I got to know some of the wealthiest families in the United States, and as I did a reality became clear.  Many of them were also amongst the finest people I had ever met; the content of their character, to paraphrase Martin Luther King, exceeding the considerable content of their bank accounts.  And of course some of them were cruds.  But I came to realize that it was not their money or their cars or their club memberships that defined them, any more than our LACK of those things defined my family.  It was the content of their character that defined them. 

I thought a lot about this as I read the comments that peppered the pages of Brookfield Now.  I kept trying to reconcile those horrific descriptions with the people I know in this area.  I couldn't do it, and I still can't. 

Most of the people in Brookfield that Barb and I know work hard every day, doing their best to care for their families and to support their schools and churches.  We know countless people who give generously of their time and financial resources to charitable and humanitarian causes, often denying themselves rest, leisure, or financial betterment in order to do so.  They cut their grass and shovel their driveways and care for their homes and look after their kids and watch out for their neighbors and try to use less gasoline, and guess what - they even try to save money on groceries. 

I am glad that Aldi's is going to be in our community and am certain my family will patronize it.

But let's not get so swept away that we believe the presence or absence of a particular grocery store defines the character of thousands of people.

I'm a big Sheryl Crow fan and heard her song Steve McQueen the other day.  It's half anthem of rocker-rebellion and half tribute to a Hollywood King of Cool. 

Crow's music is great but her lyrics might be better, and I was struck by the following lines from the song: 

"We've got rock stars in the White House, but all our pop stars look like porn.

All my heroes hit the highway - they don't hang out here anymore".

All our pop stars look like porn...................

A walk down most grocery store check-out lines confirms that, and recent news on the pop culture front speaks of our continued slide.  It goes without saying that cultural erosion is not a gender issue, but this latest news happened to involve Hollywood and young women.  I see there are two prime time cable shows that are going to be based on the lives and  - ah - careers of high priced prostitutes.  LOVELY - I suppose we should send Eliot Spitzer a thank you note for this enlightened programming development.

So what's the big deal?

Well - you don't need to look very far to see the impact that our entertainment saturated and media-driven culture is having on real life.  In New Jersey recently a group of young teenage girls were discovered to be circulating topless pictures of themselves throughout their middle school for no other reason than they thought it would be chique.  Meanwhile at a High School Prom in Texas, a female student was barred from attending the dance because her dress was too risque (kudos to the school officials).  I was doing some paperwork and watching the news when they showed a picture of the young lady.  The - er - dress, was something you would expect to see on a Paris runway model - not so much a garment as a few strategically located pieces of fabric.

Regardless of where we fall on the social/political spectrum, I believe most of us can recognize such developments as inherently negative and disturbing.  Our pop culture is teaching America's girls that the way to be desirable is to display themselves as street toughs who scorn any hint of reserve or, dare I say it, feminine charm.  

And that's kind of a shame, don't you think?

I did not think I would ever see a tennis match as good as the Wimbledon Final of 1980, which matched the stoic Swede Bjorn Borg against the brash and temperamental New Yorker John McEnroe.  I remain too jealously protective of the sports legends of my youth to say it was better, but honesty forces me to acknowledge that last Sunday's Wimbledon final between the Swiss Roger Federer and the Spaniard Rafael Nadal was at least its equal.

I played competitive tennis about a hundred years ago, and still hold fond memories of my old wooden Jack Kramer Pro-Staff with its brown diamonds on the white neck.  I wasn't anything special, but played enough to understand and appreciate what is required to play the game.  As I watched these two play I slowly entered a state of disbelief.  The shots that they hit were simply that - unbelievable.  The speed, strength, reflexes, timing, and conditioning of these two players left me speechless.  The spectacular became commonplace in this match, as both players routinely executed shot after seemingly un-makeable shot.  John McEnroe, who provided outstanding color commentary for NBC and was the Number One player in the world in the 1980's, marvelled as well.  Agape with admiration, he openly fumbled for  words to convey to the audience the sheer brilliance that was on display.  My nine year old son added in understated simplicity, "Man - they are playing HARD".

In addition to their physical prowess, the match was nothing short of epic in its setting, its theater, and its execution. Like Yankee Stadium, Churchill Downs, and Augusta National, Center Court at the All England Club is one of the hallowed cathedrals of sport.  Federer entered the tournament as one of only two men to ever win five consecutive Wimbledons, Bjorn Borg being the other.  But just a short month ago, Roger the Great had not only been beaten, but dominated by Nadal on the clay courts of the French Open, and pundits of the game were openly speaking of a "passing of the torch".  In the match itself, Federer was down two sets to love in his bid to win an unprecedented sixth consecutive Wimbledon singles title.  But he clawed his way back from the precipice not once, but twice, as he won the third set in a tie-breaker, and battled back from the seemingly insurmountable defecit of 2-5 in the fourth set tie-breaker.  Fittingly, the fifth set also required extra games, and the longest Men's Final in Wimbledon history ended with Nadal prevailing 9-7 in set five, bringing to an end Federer's pursuit of the sport's Holy Grail.

It was the stuff of legend - almost mythological.  And as he did Hector and Achilles, Homer would have been proud to immortalize these two combatants with his pen. 

That's because even more than their incredible talent and athleticism, one is drawn to the character of these two men.  In today's world of sport, dominated by preeners and strutters and spewers of trash-talk, these two combatants are soft-spoken gentlemen, their respect for each other and for their sport as obvious as it is enormous. 

To say "it's a shame anyone had to lose" is to speak a cliche.  But phrases become cliches because they are true.

And this one was never more true than last Sunday in London.

Ford - General Motors - Chrysler.  Once American icons - now the Dwindling Three.

Before I go any further I want to indicate how serious this matter is to me on a personal level.  I work for a company that does a lot of business with the domestic automobile manufacturers.  Many people that I am happy to call friends and co-workers depend on that business for their livelihoods.  So I write with that sobering backdrop.

Over fifteen years ago I said it was not a question of "if" the domestic auto-makers would go bankrupt, it was a matter of "when".  Many laughed at me at the time, but a changing world, Dephi Automotive's Chapter Eleven filing, and open talk of GM filing has dampened everyone's sense of humor on this point.  About five years ago I said that the sooner they go bankrupt the better, a seemingly heartless comment, but one I stand by.  Why do I say this would be a good thing?  Because it is only under the operational rules of bankruptcy that these companies have even a ghost of a chance.

They cannot possibly survive the current environment.  That environment has been created by forty years of self-delusion on the part of management and the union - supposed business titans who thought their massive hordes of cash would enable them to ride out any storm, or that their political "cover" would protect them.  And it has been created by forty years of both of these parties living in the purple haze of halcyon days goneby, thinking they could somehow suspend economic reality.  

Today, many point to the rocketing cost of gasoline, with its lethal impact on the sales of more profitable SUV's and trucks, as the problem.  But while the recent trend in fuel prices is certainly a significant added pressure, they are only serving to HASTEN the end, not CAUSE it.  Detroit was well on the road to perdition before gas hit three and four dollars. 

So what is the cause?

GM has five former employees receiving free health care and pensions for every one current employee.  Now you can debate the "fairness" of this and the "policy" of this and the "politics" of this as long as you want.  What you cannot debate are the actuarial realities associated with that staggering measurement.  And so today, board rooms full of managers who KNOW what is going to happen suspend their disbelief as they preside over their ever-shrinking cash reserves. 

There was a time in our world and in our country when conditions could support paying people for sixty years when the span of their actual working years was half that.  That time is long gone - a reality that will see play itself out across many sectors of our economic and political life in the coming decades. 

It's not about politics anymore. 

It's about demographics and the immutability of economic law.

"And to this Declaration we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor".

Our kids' favorite movie is National Treasure.  It's a tremendous film containing action, humor, and lots of history.  It's proof that Hollywood can still put out good stuff without spewing truckloads of sex, violence, or special effects.

There is a great scene where Nicholas Cage is in the National Archives, reading a few lines from the original Declaration of Independence.  After doing so he pauses reflectively, and them comments to his companion, "you know - people don't talk like that anymore".

Take a minute or two this weekend and read the document that Jefferson authored and so many signed.  And then give some thought to the fact that when they pledged their lives, forutnes, and sacred honor, they valued most what they mentioned last - their honor.  These were not casual words glibly penned for dramatization.  Many of those men would forfeit their lives at the end of a British rope for the audacity of their actions.

Nicholas Cage was right - we don't talk like that anymore.

Maybe remembering those who did will help us to.

Happy Fourth of July to everyone.

This is my one-hundredth posting.  I don't keep track; the only reason I know is that the software of this program tracks the number of entries and displays it on a file-manager page.  So - I thought I would do some reflecting on the last ninety-nine entries.

Local stories, public health, music, economics, politics, sports, history, and reflections on our culture have constituted my subject matter.  In no particular order, the five most viewed postings of 2008 have been:

Person of the Year - A look at the life and death of Benazir Bhutto - the assassinated Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Nearer His God - A tribute to our American Churchill - William F. Buckley, who died a few months ago.

Out of Balance - Sports and Forensics in Brookfield - A look at the disturbing levels of local media attention paid, and not paid, to these two activities.

Time to Say Goodbye - A farewell and tribute to Brett Favre.

Wish List - A musical review of this Pearl Jam song, combined with a whimsical recounting of a cherished ride to school with my daughter; a life-long memory that I will always associate with this song.

The article I put the most time into was last year's three-part series on the Virginia Tech. Massacre entitled A Bed of Straw.  Perhaps my personal favorites have been the ones about music, and in particular, Wish List.  What I consider two of my better pieces were Getting Small - a look at history and modern times as seen through the lens of my back-packing trip through Glacier National Park, and the more recent Time to Say Goodbye.   The ones that generated the most criticism were the two part series Church and State, a look at the historical origins of this issue, and my take on the legacy of the Sixties entitled The Summer of Self-Love.

I have received all kinds of feedback ranging from contemptuous to favorable.  It's good to get both - the criticism keeps you grounded, and the kind words provide encouragement to continue. 

I try to draw from a number of "wells" as I write, and have admitedly ranged far afield at times, knitting together disparate subjects to make a larger point.  Whatever your view of my writing I say a sincere "thank-you" for considering it.  And thanks also to the staff of Brookfield Now for providing this venue.

Lastly - thanks for the fun you all have provided.  It's been a blast.