HUFFINGTON POST: it like not to recognize your best friend’s face? How about your mother’s–or your child’s? What sounds unimaginable to most people is a daily experience for people with face blindness, aka prosopagnosia or facial agnosia, a rare and poorly understood neurological disorder that’s in the spotlight as the result of a “60 Minutes” segment that aired last night on CBS News…

As you might expect, prosopagnosia can be socially crippling. People with the condition have trouble establishing and maintaining personal and professional relationships, Stahl explained. And many face blind people complain that they have trouble following the plots of TV shows and movies, because they can’t keep track of the characters’ identities, according the Harvard website.

What causes face blindness? Researchers don’t know for sure, but they think it’s the result of abnormal function of a region of the brain known as the right fusiform gyrus, according to the website of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The abnormality can be congenital or the result of stroke, brain injury, or certain neurodegenerative diseases.   (more)

EDITOR: The Watchdog suffers from partial face blindness, enough so he had trouble identifying his own young children when they were with several others.  At company gatherings, everyone wears a name tag.  As indicated above, prosopagnosia is socially inhibiting.

By Robert Edwin Field

Over dinner earlier in the week, a senior representative of a worldwide  non-governmental organization related how the charity was cancelling student fellowships for summer work in several Latin American and South American countries and withdrawing their personnel from some… all due to the rising power of the drug cartels and the danger this presents to the inhabitants.

The major drug involved is marijuana.  It is the indiscriminate War on Drugs that bars this relatively innocuous drug from regulation, taxation and control as we do for cigarettes and alcohol.   The result is a criminal enterprises that dwarfs even the auto industry for size.  It has also generated a criminal justice system that thrives on putting Americans – especially African-Americans – in prison or under court custody.

Seventy-five years ago to this day the Watchdog was born in the midst of the Great Depression and the rise of fascism in Germany.  There were great problems but they were not largely self-inflicted.  The country rose nobly to fight to free the world from Nazism, and to improve the condition of all Americans (ultimately including African-Americans) as well as much of the rest of the word.  But things changed three decades ago when the benighted concluded that “Government is the problem.”

Today the country is again in great trouble, but this time almost all self-inflicted.

We are trying to end  two foolhardy wars costing almost four trillion dollars, more than 50% of the national debt.   The middle class income is shrinking and 0.01% of the population has gained immense wealth and, through unbridled campaign contributions, gained control over both political parties.  Examples:  Military- Industrial complex; Wall Street; Criminal Justic complex; Health Industry, Big Oil.   (We are bombarded with ads telling us the wonderful things the subsidized  petroleum companies are doing for us while we neglect funding alternate sources of energy and blithely pay $4 a gallon at the pump.)

An unwieldy and exploitive health industry costs 50% more of Gross Domestic Product than the most expensive of other advanced nations and yet ours is rated on the level of Cuba.

Thanks to unwarranted consolidations led by craven Wall Street manipulators, our economy is led by vastly overpaid financiers rather than the largely socially responsible industrialist of the past.

A Military – Industrial complex forever beats the drums of war and causes the nation to bleed both literally and figuratively, resulting in hundreds of thousands  of deaths here and abroad and spending twice what is needed to protect our worldwide interests on the belief that running the world is out responsibility.  (How the Chinese laugh at us!)

I would add an outrageously expensive educational system, rooted in methods from the Middle Ages rather than from the modern Internet.

We permit high unemployment at a time when the nation’s infrastructure is rusting away, when little investment is being made for modernization, and the government has all but abandoned partnering with private enterprise in research and new investments.  (We have virtually ceded economic dominance for the balance of the 21^st Century to China.)

Ignoramuses believe the way to reduce a deficit is to shrink the economy by reduction in governmental expenditures and even less taxes on the rich, who already enjoy the lowest taxes by at least half and probably two-thirds over much of the past century. One can argue that higher taxes corelate to periods of real national economic growth.

To have lived long and well is great good fortune.  But to see your country decline from greatness to mediocrity, from civic virtue to crass greed, from wise industrial and social policies to stupidities… of which none is greater than the indiscriminate War on Drugs …  these do detract from the joy of the occasion.

I have lived to witness the rise and the decline of America.  I wish I could have accomplished more during my life to help save the nation.

“To be and not to do is not to be at all.”  Robert

“I always thought there would be plenty of time” – Leon Miller on his death bed

“No one is a failure who keeps trying.”  Unknown

“It takes a long time to dissolve the bars of a mental cage.” Ayaan Hirsi Ali

From the WASHINGTON POST:

Fertility rates have dropped in many parts of the world in recent decades, but something particularly remarkable happened to the once-prolific family across Latin America. From sprawling Mexico to tiny Ecuador to economically buoyant Chile, fertility rates plummeted, even though abortion is illegal, the Catholic Church opposes birth control and government-run family planning is rare.

A frenzied migration to the cities, the expansion of the female workforce, better health care and the example of the small, affluent families portrayed on the region’s wildly popular soap operas have contributed to a demographic shift that happened so fast it caught social scientists by surprise.

In 1960, women in Latin America had almost six children on average. By 2010, the rate had fallen to 2.3 children…

Click here to read the full article.

EDITOR:   The rate required to maintain a stable population, all other things being equal, is 2.1 children per family.

The Brazilian trend comes as no surprise to the Watchdog who, as an assignment in a graduate course in Economics, spent many hours over half a century ago in the lower depths of the Cal-Berkeley library rooting through the World Book of Statistics for a century to determine the annual birth and death rates in several ‘undeveloped countries’.

The results clearly indicated a population explosion as modern health care became available followed a generation or two afterwards with a rapid drop in the number of children per family.

Among other reasons, parents were more confident that their children would survive to help support them in their old age and population shifted to the urban areas so children were not required for farm work..   This ‘explosion’ followed by a continuing drop in birth rates over time has resulted in a birth rate level far below 2.1 in most modern countries, as low as 1.4 in some European countries.

My professor, Carlos Cipolla, was so delighted with the information that substantiated what he had theorized that he gave me an “A” without my having to write a paper on the findings.  (It was the final days of my senior year.)  He later published an important book concerning what became known as the ‘Demographic Gap.”

It was Andreas Papandreou, later to become Greek prime minister and father of the Andreas Papandreou, the current prime mnister,  whom I was called to meet during my senior year at Cal-Berkeley (1959) and who offered me the two year fellowship at Cambridge with $5,000 stipend per year.   I humorously suggested the stipend should be $10,000 due to the hardship of living abroad!   I then thanked him but explained that I had already determined to follow a business career and it would be better to give the opportunity to another.

WIKIPEDIA: …In 1943, [Andreas] Papandreou received a PhD in Economics from Harvard University. Immediately after getting his PhD, Papandreou joined America’s war effort and volunteered for the US Navy where he served as a hospital corpsman at the Bethesda Naval Hospital for war wounded,[9] and became a United States citizen. He returned to Harvard in 1946 and served as a lecturer and associate professor until 1947. He then held professorships at the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, the University of California, Berkeley (where he was chair of the Department of Economics),..

by Robert Field

It was June, 1972, and a large part of the greater Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania valley had been flooded by the overflow of the Susquehanna River as a result of a Hurricane Agnes. The two story Gateway Apartments in nearby Edwardsville had been immersed to attic level and all of the 264 units were covered with inches of river mud. Furnishing, along with the interior of the apartments, had been soaked, contaminated and destroyed.

Three days after the water subsided and while downtown was still cordoned off by the National Guard, two men, one in his sixties and the other in his thirties, entered the First National Bank of North East Pennsylvania in disregard to the ‘closed’ sign on the door. There they found, pushing a broom, Tom Kiley, in his late sixties, the President and CEO of the bank.

Kiley was wearing work clothes and helping employees to restore bank operations. This main branch had also been flooded. His bank held the mortgage on a portion of the apartment complex.

“Hi Henry. Hi Robert. How are things over at Gateway? What are you fellows doing?” came the upbeat voice from Kiley as he led them into his office. They explained that eighty persons were at work cleaning out the apartments, safeguarding tenant valuables, and preventing the property from rotting due to the high summer temperatures

“That’s the way to go! … Say, you fellows will need money to cover payroll. Will fifty-thousand get you going? I can fill out a note right now and we’ll deposit the funds to your account. Let us know as you need more.”

This from banker who had most of his bank branches under water! He didn’t bemoan the situation. He wasn’t paralyzed by fear. And he didn’t hesitate.

Kiley had lived through an earlier flood and the Great Depression. He understood that emergencies called for interim actions, even before permanent solutions could be envisioned. He had confidence that over time he could successfully deal with the major problems.

Kiley’s courageous leadership in the face of his bank’s own dire situation not only helped save the bank’s clients but further served the community by setting an example for others.

However, the ‘boy wonder’ president of the rival local bank across the street either vacillated in extending help or was unable to bring along his board of directors, to his and his bank’s shame.

The bankers were both good men. But at that time, only one had the experience, the judgment, the courage and the confidence of his board. Unlike Tom Kiley, the younger banker was navigating uncharted and scary waters. But the younger man learned from experience and, over time, he too became an important and worthy community leader.

Two observations:

When I was in college over a half century ago, my professors and administrators addressed me as “Field” which I did not like or Mr. Field.  (I once asked a professor to call me either  Mr. Field or Robert, but not just Field.)

Today the dean’s letter of commendation addresses son Benjamin by his first name.  (She signs it with her first and last name.)

There may or may not be a significance to this other than the passing of time and changing of custom.   However, being referred to by my last name carried the message to me that I no longer was a high school student, a kid.  Rather, I now was in college and had earned the right to be respectfully addressed as a young adult.

In my correspondence and initial meetings,  I address strangers as Mr. or Ms.  This includes young people once they reach adulthood.

And when I meet youngsters and ask their names and they only respond with their first name, I admonish them to always give both their first and last names.   I explain to them the  former implies  ’little, unimportant  me’; the latter signals someone who anticipates a bright future.  By and large, people are treated the way they expect to be treated.

If it is true that the very nature of the way that our brains functions determines how we view new information and causes us to unconsciously deny facts that do not fit with our prior patterns of expectations, then the greatest hope for change lies with influencing future generations.

The Watchdog was subject to this phenomenon forty-five years ago, but only became aware of what had taken place almost forty years later.

Although raised in all white neighborhoods first in Northern-East Philadelphia and later in the city’s western suburbs, the Watchdog worked  during the summer at age fifteen with a good natured middle-aged African-American making deliveries for the family furniture store.   Later the Watchdog both sold goods and collected accounts in inner-city, predominately black neighborhoods.

Between his freshman and sophomore years at Oberlin College, he had a summer job at the Lorain Steel Mill and one evening attended a showing of “Grapes of Wrath” at a drive in movie with other working students.   On the drive home, he criticized the movie for overstating the plight of the “Oakies”, dismissive that such hardships had occurred.

This led to a long talk with the African-American student who was with him who had been raised on a Southern cotton plantation and had a few years earlier been ‘adopted’ by a Wisconsin minister and his wife who, recognizing his abilities, had invited him to live with them. Although later in life contact was lost with the individual by the college, he remembers his name:  Obadiah Williamson, later school president but, if information is correct, tragically a senior drop out.

Just ten years later, the Watchdog was building an apartment complex in Lancaster.  His manager was startled when, in response to a comment, the manager was directed to rent to an African-American couple.

It was four decades later in reading “A City Transformed:  Redevelopment, Race, and suburbanization in Lancaster, Pennsylvania 1940-1980″ by former Franklin and Marshall professor David Schuyler that the Watchdog discovered he may have inadvertently desegregated suburban Lancaster without having given the decision a moments consideration.  Furthermore, he wasn’t involved in the civil rights movement.  He was simply representative of a new generation of leaders coming on stream who were not subject to past prejudices.

He recently discussed the matter with his eldest son who pointed out that the son’s generation had not been subject to his father’s generation prejudice concerning gays.  In the same manner, often nonchalant, they too had had discarded a taboo.

The lesson:   If we want to improve the world, we must invest in the proper education of our youth.   If we don’t , less enlightened forces will.

Perhaps the year was 1947.   Mother and I were walking along the business district of Wildwood Crest when a gentleman around her age came up to say hello and sought to be friendly.   Mother, who normally was most gracious to all people, remained very cool and distant and broke off the conversation as quickly as she could.

The Watchdog would have been ten years old then and asked her “Why were you so cool to that man?”

She responded:  “He was sent to prison for selling black market food stamps during the war.”

Today such antics would likely go unprosecuted and the person would be considered a solid citizen because of his wealth.

Times have changed.   For many, greed has replaced fair play.  Wealth transcends reputation and determines status.  This is an underlying cause of American economic decline.

After Senator Specter’s election in 1980, our relationship had its decided ups and downs, hitting an absolute low point in the spring of 2004 after his miserable performance at Millersville University where he was supposed to give a lofty address to a faculty and student packed auditorium and, to their dismay and a columnist from the Intelligencer Journal, he rattled off pretty much his usual campaign speech.   At a reception afterwards he asked me what I thought of his talk, and I responded “Pathetic.” I didn’t meet with Arlen for years afterwards, until I drove him from a fund raiser in Lancaster to Harrisburg the day before he announced his switch back to the Democrat Party.  It was more the old Arlen / Robert relationship but he didn’t say a word about what was to happen.

But over the years we did work together to bring about some important accomplishments.   Arlen, and especially his wife Joan, a Philadelphia Council Member, had serious concerns about the War on Drugs and especially wanted to be supportive behind the scenes of harm reduction efforts, such as methadone clinics.  I recall a meeting in the senator’s office with an associate attorney general and a federal prosecutor when Specter asked if they thought that there was some truth in the benefits of marijuana as medicine.  They scoffed at the notion.   Then Specter halted them in their traces by saying “Well I do.”

Perhaps a year later I met with Specter to discuss the importance of syringe exchanges as part of harm reduction, something that then Mayor Ed Rendell had introduced with city sponsorship in Philadelphia with the support of Joan Specter.   I told the senator that a study had been sponsored by the government favorable to syringe exchange but it was embargoed.  In his capacity as chair of the Senate appropriations sub-committee for Health and Human Services, Specter placed a call to then Secretary Donna Shalala and, using the speaker phone for my benefit,  asked her when the report would be released.

She said “Arlen, we are concerned about the political consequences of a Democratic administration appearing to be supportive of syringe exchange.  May I say we are doing so at your request?”

Specter responded in the affirmative and a few days later the following was released, perhaps  most important government intervention on behalf of harm reduction that has ever taken place:

“In 1998, Donna Shalala, then Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Clinton Administration, stated: ‘A meticulous scientific review has now proven that needle exchange programs can reduce the transmission of HIV and save lives without losing ground in the battle against illegal drugs.’” Source:  Shalala, D.E., Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services, Press release from Department of Health and Human Services (April 20, 1998).

Specter’s later effort to obtain federal funding for syringe exchange programs hit a stone wall.  At the time he told me that Senate tradition allowed almost any subject to be discussed candidly in the Cloak Room…with the exception of drug policy reform or harm reduction!   That is how counter-factual things were at the time.  It took twenty years of my efforts and those of scores of others to bring about a change.  This was the major work of my lifetime.

Shalala’s and Specter’s courage in releasing the report are praiseworthy.  The Watchdog along with the good people at the Bethel AME church have done what they could to provide a rudiment of a syringe exchange here in Lancaster for well over a decade.  Unfortunately, public charity Lancaster General Health, with its average hundred million dollars in profits each year, has done nothing to help fund and expand the vital effort in safeguarding public health.

In recent months Congress has approved federal funding of syringe exchanges!

Later I will discuss Arlen Specter’s key role in bringing about a Lancaster prototype research project for the expansion of methadone treatment.  (To be continued)