20 Comments

Growing up in a Catskills resort hotel

  By About me, Family Stories

                    This is a long post, about 7000 words. It might be easier to download and print out the pdf version. Introduction One of the last times I walked on the grounds of the hotel my family owned—Stier’s Hotel—was about twenty years ago when I took my wife and some cousins to see it. That was also about fifteen years after we sold the hotel. At the time, our hotel still functioned as a hotel, although much had changed and it was owned by Hasidic Jews. They day we showed up was Shabbos and I was reluctant to walk onto the grounds. So we just stood at one of the gates and looked in. Soon a young boy, probably no more than 12 or 13, came up to us and asked who we are. I told him who I was and he… Continue reading

No comments

Today at 2:15 pm 30th street station: Tell Senator Specter to Get Health Care Done!

  By Health Care

Join Health Care For America Now and SEIU as we thank Senator Arlen Specter for his support of health care reform and the public health insurance plan and encourage him to get health care reform done as he heads back to Washington on Tuesday September 8 We will be joined by Senator Specter as he leaves for Washington on the 29th street side of 30th Street Station on Tuesday afternoon at 2:15 pm. RSVVP at http://healthcareforamericanow.org/page/event/detail/letsgetitdone/4jr7l Continue reading

No comments

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-06

  By About me

has no events til Monday. Adrenaline levels are down and I'm catatonic. # Tell Obama we're counting on him to fight for bold change on health care including a public option http://tinyurl.com/lcx5j2 # Public Option or Insurance Companies?: Thursday Noon, 1900 Market Street in Philly, Noon. Stand up for health care reform !!! # Powered by Twitter Tools. Continue reading

No comments

Vote no on the Senate version of HB 1828

  By Labor, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Sometimes there are no good choices. No one wants the city of Philadelphia to adopt Plan C, the plan to balance the budget by drastically cutting services. And there is a risk that if the State House votes down the Senate version of HB 1828 we will wind up with it. But that is far from certain. There is time for further negotiation between the House and the Senate. Labor has some influence over some Republican state senators. And now that organized labor has recognized how bad 1828 it could put its whole force behind a clean bill that allows Philadelphia to raise the sales tax and reduce pension spending. And there is a long way to go before we can rule out City Council passing other, possibly better, taxes that replace sales tax revenues if 1828 is never passed. What is certain, however, is that 1828 violates a principle… Continue reading

No comments

I was a liberal tea bagger

  By A political memoir, Health Care

Tonight we turned out a bunch of people for a Health Care Town Hall sponsored by Damian Dachowski, who used the event to announce that he would be running for Congress against Allyson Schwartz next year. Normally, HCAN in PA ignore most these events. Given that the press in Southeast PA pretty much doesn’t cover events held by issue activists unless there is controversy, it doesn’t make sense to show up and give the right wingers more publicity. And, given that we are a non-partisan campaign, we especially make a point of avoiding partisan events. But this was a special case. Allyson Schwartz has been a great champion of health care reform. Her districts is important in that a lot of people who live in it have influence far beyond it. It is a district that is becoming more progressive. And we expected a lot of press anyway given that… Continue reading

No comments

Still not time to freak out about the public option. But it is time to organize!

  By Health Care

For the third time in the last few months, there are rumors in Washington that President Obama is going to drop his support of the public health insurance option. This has many of you worried. I’m a little worried, too. But I don’t still don’t think there is any reason to be freaking out right now. There is reason to act. And that’s why I will be following this up with some action steps you can take on the public option. And I’m asking you to go to the list of Let’s Get it Done events and find one to go to in the next few days. And now let me say a bit about what where health care reform, and the public option, stand right now. Continue reading

No comments

Let’s Get It Done: 13 PA Health Care Events This Week

  By Health Care

Congress returns to work next week. So this is our last chance to tell them:  Let’s Get It Done! Enact Health Insurance Reform in 2009!  We’ve beaten back right wing opposition in the last few weeks and emerged with more support for real reform. Now it is time for the final push. Take part in one of the many Let’s Get It Done events all over Pennsylvania.  Tell your Representatives and Senators that it is time for action. They must go back to Washington and move health care reform forward. And tell your friends about the Health Insurance Reform campaign and these events by clicking here.  (There are 13 events in the next week in Pennsylvnia. Plesae scroll down to find your region of the state) Continue reading

No comments

A short observation on sensory experience and age

  By About me, Music

I really have trouble listening to music while I write now. And that’s because, even though I have always love music love, the intensity of the pleasure I get from is stronger now than it has ever been. Something similar seems to be true for all my senses. They are all duller in some ways than they were twenty years ago. I’m starting to have trouble hearing things and not only am I as nearsighted as ever but I’ve totally lost my near point and have to take my glasses off to see close up. My touch is still pretty good but I’ve started to notice that I can’t pick up quite the level of details on a surface as I once did. But the intensity of my sensual experience is much greater than before. Continue reading

One Comment

A eulogy for my grandfather, Frank Stier

  By Family Stories

What I’m thinking about at any one time tends to be massively over-determined, for good or ill. In the last few days I’ve been thinking about the elderly. (I hate the term senior citizens). Partly this is because I’ve been doing a lot of health care events with old folks. Partly it is because my mother-in-law had a stroke last week and I’ve been talking with daughter about grandparents and what they mean to us. And partly its because Ted Kennedy just died and I think of him, as I thought of my grandparents, as someone who passed  a political and moral tradition on to me, not in theory but in practice. I’m a political philosopher and I believe in the importance of theory and reason in politics. But I’ve always believed that my  fundamental commitments come from some place deeper than theoretical reasons, from a way of life that is exemplified… Continue reading