Blog Soup 11/19/2012

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Happy Thanksgiving, in case you don’t hear from me again this week. I wish you all mountains of sweet potatoes. With marshmallows. And no nuts. Here is today’s Blog Soup (r).

  • My Baylor Bears have had a disappointing season. When you combine one of the best offenses in college football with one of the worst defenses, you get a mediocre, .500-level team. So this weekend’s matchup between Baylor and BCS #1 Kansas State should have been a walkover for the Wildcats. Apparently, someone forgot to tell the Bears. Our offense took care of business as usual, and our much-maligned defense finally showed up. Final score: 52-24 Baylor, the first time we have ever beaten a #1-ranked team. SIC ‘EM!
  • I’m disappointed by the huge amount of media attention that the General Petraeus affair is getting. Yes, he made a mistake and owned up to it. Yes, affairs are bad news for all concerned. However, don’t we have more important issues to discuss than a guy who was cheating on his wife, even if that man happens to be in a high-level position? It’s like every newspaper in the country has turned into National Enquirer. The French are laughing at us.
  • Also on the Petraeus scandal…although I like to think that I am a strong person with high morals who can resist temptation, I’m only human. As such, I’m very glad that I am fortunate enough to live in the same home with my wife and kids instead of being stationed on the other side of the world for months at at time in a hostile environment. My freedom to do so results largely from the members of our military who volunteered to serve. I can only imagine how difficult a long deployment must be on our military personnel, especially those with spouses and children. A long absence certainly doesn’t excuse cheating, but in my mind it makes cheating easier to understand.
  • It was interesting to see a company (Hostess) cease operations due to a worker strike. Yes, I’ve laughed at the Twinkie memes circulating on Facebook, but the death of Hostess means thousands of people lost their jobs. Apparently the bakers found the struggling company’s contract proposal so unpleasant that the job just wasn’t worth it anymore. If your employer was trying to force pay, benefit, and work rule concessions on you, at what point would you choose to walk out? Would it make a difference if walking out meant burning down the entire company?
  • I can’t remember the last time I ate a Twinkie. I like Zingers, though. My coworkers run an honor-system concession stand in our office called the Recession Concession that sells various snacks and soft drinks. The day Hostess shut down, there was a run on Zingers, and I didn’t get to pick up a final package of them. I’ll bet I could find some on eBay. UPDATE: Recession Concession now has a limited supply of Zingers. Due to the shortage, the price has climbed from $0.75 to $8.00. I call shenanigans.
  • The U.S. government might stand with Israel, but I do not. Most Americans, particularly American Christians, seems to blindly support Israel because they view it as God’s chosen people. I disagree. The Jews might be God’s chosen people according to the Bible, but the modern nation of Israel was created by Western powers after World War II by, in many cases, displacing a people-group that had been on the land for generations. Yes, that is greatly oversimplified, but that’s basically how it went. The displaced people were robbed of their land by the West because they weren’t strong enough to resist. After the initial allocation, Israel gradually seized more of the Palestinians’ land, as shown here. As a result, the two sides have been fighting ever since. Both the Israeli government and the Palestinians have performed terrible acts that could be defined as terrorism. Both sides have rivers of blood on their hands. Yet our government props up one side with billions of dollars, military equipment, and other aid because we think we need an ally in the region. That support is one reason that many Muslim extremists hate our nation. As for the modern nation of Israel’s being God’s chosen people, also note that the nation today is not exclusively Jewish, partly because some of the displaced Arabs decided to stick around. It’s a melting pot, like most countries in a sense. I hurt for the millions of people caught in the crossfire on both sides, especially those who have been injured or have lost loved ones in this senseless, decades-old conflict. I wish our nation were energy independent so we didn’t feel the need to be involved in the Middle East. And I wish our government could understand a simple truth: we cannot fix the Middle East. Want to end anti-U.S. terrorism? Withdrawing all troops and foreign aid from all Middle Eastern countries would go a really long way toward that goal.
  • If the people (not the word I originally used, but I’m trying to be nice) who are petitioning for Texas to secede somehow win, which is impossible without a civil war, Jenny and I would be tempted to move. Likely destinations include Missouri, Washington, or Oregon. The biggest problems would be leaving our friends and family and giving up my awesome job. As tempting as Seattle or Portland might be to me, I hope this doesn’t happen.
  • I downloaded the latest album by British indie-rock band Florence and the Machine called Ceremonials. It is fantastic. You should buy it.
  • On a related note, do people still buy CDs anymore? I don’t buy much music, to be fair, but I really cannot remember the last time I bought an actual CD rather than simply downloading it. It might have been a few years ago when I picked up something on clearance at the Virgin Megastore (remember that place?) at Grapevine Mills.

Rapid-Fire Movie Reviews

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The Life of David Gale

Somehow I had missed a 2003 film called The Life of David Gale that starred three of my favorite actors: Laura Linney, Kevin Spacey, and Kate Winslet. Who cared what it was about with a cast like that? Turns out it’s about a liberal professor/death penalty opponent (Spacey) who ironically gets sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a colleague (Linney). Days before his execution, he agrees to a final series of interviews with a reporter (Winslet) to set the record straight. Yes, the story is a bit grim, but it unfolds like a mystery thanks to an excellent script, and the final twist made my jaw drop. For me, any movie that can do that is worth watching. As expected, the acting is phenomenal as well. One of the best films I’ve seen all year.

Martha Marcy May Marlene

This indie film stars Elizabeth Olsen, younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley from Full House. I discovered Elizabeth in the psychological thriller Silent House, an excellent performance in a so-so movie. Martha Marcy May Marlene describes the Olsen character’s two-year experience with an odd Manson-family style cult, her escape from it, and her struggle to readjust to life on the outside. The structure cleverly switches back and forth between her time in the cult and life afterward, in which she moves in with family temporarily. Time and reality blend together a bit in the girl’s mind, and the constant switching helps the audience feel some of her confusion. The cult’s programming reset most of her social skills, leaving her clueless about traditional social norms. I wanted a bit more character development and a less ambiguous ending, but otherwise I really liked it.

Lost in Translation

An Oscar-winner for Best Original Screenplay, Sofia Coppola (yes, of those Coppolas) wrote and directed this quirky, moving comedy-drama about two strangers who meet while traveling in Tokyo. Bill Murray plays an aging action star who is adjusting to the fading love in his marriage and fading prospects for his career. Scarlett Johansson is a lonely and neglected wife of a successful photographer and doesn’t really know who she is or what she wants from life. This film focuses much more on the characters and dialogue than plot. Not much really happens except Murray and Johansson develop a friendship, the kind of connection that both of them need but lack. Their interaction fascinated me, and Coppola did a masterful job of conveying some of the nuances of a cross-gender friendship. Few movies I’ve seen this year have moved me as much, but trying to describe it further could ruin the effect.

Saw III

Meh.

I loved the original Saw, which I found disturbing but surprisingly clever and well-done compared to the average horror flick. The sequel was OK, definitely a step down. The third installment was just…there. The film makers seemingly decided to replace the wit and morality-play elements of the original with as much gore as they could pack in while maintaining an R. The result is a mess, pun intended. Plot holes, apathy toward the characters, a muddy story, and other problems ensured that I am done with the Saw franchise. One interesting trivia item – one of the stars, Shawnee Smith, played Rhonda the pregnant girl in the ever-quotable 1987 classic Summer School.

The Lovely Bones

This strangely uplifting movie by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings trilogy) tells the story of a murdered teen girl who gets caught in a purgatory of sorts, watching her killer run loose while her distraught family struggles to move on without her. How could this possibly be uplifting? Two reasons: 1) It’s really a celebration of life and all the beautiful moments that make it up – working on a model ship with one’s father, the anticipation of a first date and first kiss with the person you’ve been thinking about for months, the simple ability to embrace the people you love every day. 2) Jackson’s vision of the in-between state blew me away with its otherworldly color, gorgeous images, and soul-soothing sense of peace. Watch this one on Blu-Ray if you can. Also, in case you’re wondering, the director mercifully elected not to show the actual murder scene.

Yeah, it might be time to move some lighter fare atop my Netflix queue.

A Few Final Thoughts on the Election

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For those of you who hate politics, I promise this will be my last political post for a while. But several interesting things happened this week that deserve mention.

A Good Day for Gay Rights

Four states voted on proposals related to gay rights, and all four supported equality. Voters in Maine, Maryland, and Washington State all approved same-sex marriage. Voters in Minnesota voted down a constitutional amendment that would have explicitly banned same-sex marriage. Gay marriage has appeared on ballots many times before across the country and lost every time until yesterday. Bravo to those states who approved equal treatment for all regardless of whom they love.

In related news, the voters of Wisconsin elected Tammy Baldwin as the first openly gay U.S. Senator. According to the article, the campaign focused on political issues rather than Baldwin’s sexual orientation, which is exactly how it should be. Congratulations, Senator Baldwin.

Obama’s Second Term

Although I voted for Stein knowing she wouldn’t win, I was hoping Obama would win rather than Romney. While I am pleased with the outcome, this is no time to gloat. I disagreed with many of his positions, but Romney seems like a good man who cares about our nation and would have worked hard to make things better.

More importantly, Washington is still broken and paralyzed by partisan bickering. We have serious problems and need serious solutions. Both Obama and the mostly-unchanged Congress have a huge amount of work to do, and most of it will be arduous. Obama and the top leaders in Congress have all committed to work together and listen to each other’s ideas to get some things done, the big thing being avoidance of the fiscal cliff. Obama even said he wants to get input from Romney. I want to believe them. Compromise is the only way to solve the problems we face. But I will remain a skeptic until I see some real progress. Best wishes to all involved on both sides of the aisle.

The Makeup of Our Nation is Changing

During the election coverage Tuesday night and in reading the analysis before and after, I was fascinated by all the data being hurled at me. USA Today compiled a great breakdown of the results by a variety of demographic divisions. A few things stood out, many of which do not bode well for the Republicans unless they change their approach and platform significantly:

  1. Rural and small-town voters tend to vote Republican, even in swing states and some largely Democratic states. Except in heavily Republican states, urban voters tend vote Democratic. Virginia was a great example. On the map, the vast majority of counties went red, but there were so many blue voters concentrated in the big cities that the state went to Obama.
  2. Whites, rural people, older people, rich people, evangelicals, and men lean Republican. Pretty much everyone else leans Democratic, including nonwhites, gay people, gay sympathizers, city dwellers, middle- and lower-class people, people of no faith, Catholics, mainline Christians, women, and younger people.

I say these tendencies are bad news for Republicans because the demographics of our nation are shifting in favor of the Democrats. The percentage of whites is dropping as the minority population is rising, particularly the Latino population. People continue to move from rural areas to larger cities. Gay acceptance is rising. Evangelicals are losing people to the “spiritual but not religious” movement, and some believe they are already losing influence. If our young people continue to lean Democratic once they reach voting age, the general population will skew bluer over time. Obviously, not all of these trends apply here in deep-red Texas right now, but our Latino population is growing rapidly, which could end Republican dominance here.

Mixed Reactions

Regarding the presidential race, about half the country is happy, the other half sad. I saw a few jubilant posts on Facebook. I also heard one guy at work say we were in for “four more years of Islamic communism”. I have hidden or unfriended most of my politically obnoxious Facebook friends, but I still saw some negative comments right after Obama was declared the winner. Interestingly, the Romney supporters I know probably voted mostly for Republicans, which means most of their candidates were victorious. Yet some of them are devastated, even “physically ill” according to one friend, over the one race at the top of the ballot that they lost, as if a Romney victory would solve all our problems. It makes me even more convinced that many people, even some of the ones who get really worked up about politics, don’t really understand how our government works.

As for me, I voted for a mix of Greens and Dems, not a good combination here in Texas. Every single one of them lost. Sure, I disagree on many issues with Senator-Elect Ted Cruz and Congressman Kenny Marchant, but I’m not freaking out because they won, either. As I wrote earlier this week, life will go on regardless of who won.

There is one thing all of us can do whether our candidates won or lost on Tuesday: when appropriate, contact them regarding our views on an issue we care about. For now, that’s about the most we can do to influence them. Contacting your representatives or the President is easy. No, they can’t read every message they receive, but their staffers capture and track the general sentiment of all the messages to know how their constituents feel. If you aren’t happy about who won, contact him or her and speak up. It’s more effective than whining on Facebook or complaining to the people around you.

Thanks to all of you who voted, regardless of whom you chose.

Things That Won’t Change After Today

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We’re finally here at Election Day 2012. Like some of you, I have followed some of these races closely and for a long, long time. Are you tired? I certainly am, and I don’t even live in a swing state that’s been getting bombarded with propaganda for months. Are you nervous about the results? I’ll certainly be disappointed if certain people win, but I think some perspective might be helpful.

Not much is actually going to change no matter who wins.

For example:

  • The sun will rise on Wednesday just like it did today.
  • If the projections are correct, Congress will remain divided, dysfunctional, and incapable of getting much done.
  • The economy will continue to slowly improve no matter who is elected. Presidents don’t get issued a magic wand at their inaugurations that gives them control over the economy. Their policies can steer the ship a bit, but the U.S. economy is a very big ship, and no single person or institution has much control over it.
  • The federal deficit will continue to grow at an alarming rate. Neither Obama nor Romney plans to balance the budget for several years.
  • Climate change will continue. Neither candidate has made significantly reducing greenhouse gasses a top priority, and Congress wouldn’t let them do it if they tried.
  • Chipotle will remain king of all fast-food burrito joints. No, I can’t prove that. Just go with it.
  • Abortion will remain legal and widely available. I still don’t understand why so many people vote based on abortion rights. Is saving the unborn a noble goal? I think it is. However, to my knowledge, no significant changes have been made to abortion rights since Roe versus Wade back in the 1970s, even after eight years under Reagan and eight more under Bush, both Republicans. I doubt any big changes will occur anytime soon. Like it or not, the fight against abortion rights is as unwinnable as the war in Afghanistan. Let’s move on to a cause that can make a difference, like reducing unwanted pregnancies.
  • The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will not appear, nor will the world end. (That happens next month, remember?)
  • Some Republicans and some Democrats will remain convinced that their party is God’s party and the other party is a tool of Satan. All of them are wrong. Democracy isn’t even a Christian concept. Those pagan Greeks invented it centuries before the birth of Jesus. Israel’s rulers, when they had a single ruler, were kings. The people in the early church in Acts pooled all their resources so that everyone had enough, which sounds a bit socialistic to me. I hope someday we can all ditch the idea that Americans are God’s chosen people and that one political party can accurately represent God’s will.
  • At least 25 million Americans will remain without health insurance even if Obama wins and Obamacare is fully implemented. Remember, it’s not universal coverage or a government takeover of the entire healthcare system. It’s a major reform of the health insurance industry. That 25 million number could be much higher if Romney wins and somehow manages to repeal Obamacare despite a Democratic Senate, which is highly unlikely despite Romney’s promises.
  • Progress toward gay rights and acceptance will continue. Why? The majority of Americans now support them, even if that view isn’t as popular here in the Bible Belt. Support has risen significantly over the last decade.
  • The war in Afghanistan will continue at least into 2014 since both Obama and Romney think it’s worthwhile to keep troops there.
  • The people who claim that they’ll move to Canada if the wrong person wins…won’t actually go anywhere.
  • Birds will sing, autumn leaves will fall, my sons will remain adorable, I’ll run and then go to work, Jenny will go to school, and I’ll continue spending too much time on Facebook.

Yes, some things might change once the new people take office, but I think the media’s relentless focus on the election gives us a distorted view of the actual impact of the government on our lives. So if your candidates win, celebrate with them. But if they lose, shake it off along with me. (I voted for Jill Stein. Her odds are long, and that’s being generous.)

Life will go on either way.

Big Changes Coming at Southwest

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These are exciting days at Southwest Airlines. Southwest is slowly absorbing former AirTran airports, aircraft, and people. New construction projects are changing the look of our home airport (Dallas Love) and our headquarters. And we are preparing to begin flights outside the continental U.S. Here are a few of the highlights:

AirTran Integration

The process of combining our two airlines will last through 2015, but we’ve already made significant progress. We have taken over AirTran’s operations in Seattle, Canton/Akron, Des Moines, and Dayton, and we take over its Key West service this coming Sunday. We’ve converted at least 10 AirTran 737s into Southwest configuration and paint scheme along with crews to work them. Coming this spring, we will take over AirTran’s service to Branson, Wichita, Charlotte, Flint, Rochester, and Portland, ME. Significantly for me, the AirTran dispatch office will move from Orlando to our headquarters building in June, although technically we will remain two separate groups for 2-3 more years with the AirTran dispatchers gradually converting to Southwest as we convert more planes and flights. Three of them are already in training to “jump the fence” and join our office. Plus we will finally start code sharing with AirTran next year, meaning you can buy a ticket from a Southwest airport to an AirTran-only airport to give you more options.

Going Farther

We just received approval from the FAA to operate flights outside the continental U.S. for the first time in our history, a huge milestone that will give us numerous new SWA destinations in the coming years. Yesterday we announced our first such destination: San Juan, Puerto Rico. Service begins in April from Orlando and Tampa, with more airports to follow. We are VERY excited about these new opportunities! Puerto Rico is particularly interesting because it’s a prime starting port for amazing cruises to the Southern Caribbean. I am hopeful that we’ll add a Houston-San Juan nonstop to make it easy for us Dallasites to get there. Eventually we will take over all of AirTran’s international operations including flights to Cancun, Mexico City, Nassau, Punta Cana, Cabo San Lucas, Montego Bay, and Bermuda. Plus I’m sure that eventually we will add some new destinations of our own. (aloha, y’all!)

Changes in Dallas

First of all, as you might already know, the City of Dallas and Southwest are working together to build a beautiful new terminal at Love Field. Twelve of the gates are scheduled to open in April 2013 along with many of the new concessions. The remaining eight gates will open later. If you’re at Love anytime soon, look out the windows to see the new terminal.

Second, the main restrictions of the Wright Amendment will expire in October 2014, now less than two years away! At that time, we will be able to fly nonstop from Love to pretty much any airport we want within the continental U.S. (still no international flights), providing our Customers (and Employees!) a wealth of new flight options. I’m hoping for nonstops to Orlando, Vegas, Seattle, Chicago, Denver, Baltimore, Atlanta…but it’s not up to me.

Finally, construction has begun on a new building at SWA headquarters that will house our 24/7 workgroups, including Dispatch. It will be a hardened facility to keep us safe during severe weather, and it will provide plenty of space and a new design to help us operate as safely and effectively as possible both now and far into the future. I can’t wait to see our new home when it opens late next year or early 2014.

I’ve worked at Southwest for over 11 years now. I still love it here, and I am grateful to be a small part of this great company.

Disclaimer: I am not an official Southwest spokesperson, and all opinions expressed on this website are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect those of Southwest Airlines, its Board of Directors, or other Employees.

Awe

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On occasion, far too often I’m afraid, I get the chance to step back from the daily struggles of parenthood and look more closely at my children.

They are impossibly, achingly beautiful.

I don’t say that just because they are handsome young men because it’s much, much more than that. They are a mysterious, inexplicable swirl of Jenny and me and her family and my family and God and genetics and chance. No matter how much we try to shape them into some vague notion of responsible, loving, mature young men over their couple of decades in our care, they are separate and independent and amazing little people with their own personalities, wills, and choices to make. It’s amazing that I get to play a small role in their lives.

It’s so easy to get beaten down and distracted by daily life with children – the constant messes, the moments that make me shake my head in bewilderment, the frustration that occurs when I measure childhood logic by grown-up standards, the soul-sucking drudgery of making their compliance with my directions my ultimate goal rather than something more meaningful, the fear that this will be the time when they really do hurt each other and do permanent damage, the numbness that develops after tuning out countless fits and learning how to judge the seriousness of a cry from the other room.

If those are the only parts of parenthood that we think about and remember, it’s hard to be happy as a parent.

But today we went to the boys’ open house at school. Brenden showed us around his room like he was proud of it. He played with a friend on the big-kid playground and yelled gleefully for the friend to chase him, a natural leader like I never was. I saw a drawing he’d made of our house, and it actually looked sorta like our house. Jonathan played dress-up in his classroom for at least the dozenth time. He loves being either a fireman or Superman. He loves his teachers. They love him. He plays with cars in the corner, not because we taught him that boys are supposed to like cars, but simply because he does. They are real people. They didn’t even exist a few years ago, yet now they do, growing and changing every day.

We came home and put them to bed. I remember late last night going up to check on Jonathan when he was coughing, just like I’d done other nights when he’d woken up with a nightmare. He wasn’t scared of the large, dark man he could barely see because he knew it was me, that I loved him, and I was here to help. It’s awe-inspiring to hear my two-year-old say, “Thank you, Daddy,” after I give him a drink or tuck him back into bed.

Tonight I put Brenden to bed, and he figured out how to break my concentration and relentless focus on the task at hand. I’d finally brought his piggy bank, a gift from our friends Chris and Demona upon his birth, into his room so he could collect his own coins. He found the concept of a piggy bank amusing. As I’m asking him which song he wants me to sing, he starts saying, “Piggy.” I don’t know why he thought it was funny, or how he knew it would break me, but I laughed. He knew he had me then, so he kept doing it and laughing hysterically at my helplessness. I temporarily lost my “control” of the situation, and I just let it go. I sat by his bed laughing with my son. It felt like we were actually friends instead of parent and child. And I liked it. We agreed upon “Old McDonald Had A Farm.” And yes, Old McDonald had a piggy tonight.

After they were asleep, I looked through the pictures Jenny had taken of the open house. I was blown away by what I saw. Their lives, their personalities, leapt through the pictures into my soul, as if I were seeing them for the first time. Those beautiful boys belong to us, to God, to the world. I don’t deserve them, but I’m glad they are a part of my life anyway.

I want to see them this way much more often.