What a pleasant surprise! The morally reprehensible ballot proposition (California's Proposition 82) that I feared was certain to pass was soundly defeated by a 39/61 ratio. Only two of California's 58 counties passed it (one by less than 350 votes).
As a bonus, the other proposition (a bond measure) was also defeated. I have a “guilty until proven innocent” attitude toward Statewide bond measures, as a state with one of the highest tax rates in the country has some very large means and should be able live within them. (Local bonds measures are a different story.)
Despite these results, I'm not sure if my cynicism about the general population's lack of moral fiber should be eased, or my cynicism about the general population's apathy should be aggravated. Voter turnout appears to have been in the pitiful 20-30% range.
Due to the low turnout, I'm sure all kinds of groups will be doing “get out the vote” drives for November. I've always thought those were sending the wrong message, because it's better to not vote than to vote in ignorance. If you vote in ignorance, you're voting based upon something as superficial as a name (“oooh, I've heard of this Hollywood celebrity”) or a sound bite (“Proposition XYZ, for our kids, for our future!”).
There is no issue out there that can not be made to sound appealing. Who could vote against something called the “safe streets and safe children act” (capital punishment for speeding) or a bill that “guarantees equal opportunities for all our children, adults, and seniors” (makes it illegal to not hire someone who applies for employment)?
You often have to dig to really understand something. With any ballot proposition, there are three unrelated levels to the issue:
- The general idea
- The specifics
- How it's to be done
As it was with yesterday's reprehensible Proposition 82, the first is most often something anyone could love, like “support our kids” or “support our future”. Whatever #1 is, it's usually just a bunch of sound bites that have very little to do with the real considerations (#2 and #3), and everything to do with garnering the ignorant vote. Being factually correct is certainly not a requirement.
In the case of yesterday's Proposition 82, #2 was “empower the Teachers' union”, and #3 was “rob others.”
Sorry, enough ranting.... we should be back to our regularly-scheduled photographs-of-my-kid entries tomorrow.
Californians (and expatriates like me whose last US residence was in California) vote tomorrow on a number of things, including Proposition 82. Proposition 82 would create a special income-tax increase to pay for universal preschool throughout the state.
Even as much as the general citizen might like young children, few will want to fork over more in taxes specifically to pay for it.... especially those without children. That's why one might suspect this proposition to be doomed from the start, but no, it won't fail. I predict it will pass with the force of a mandate.
It will pass because this proposition's key point is “You don't have to pay -- others will pay.” Proposition 82 increases the State tax by 18% on income over $400k. The very vast majority of those that vote on it (including me) won't be subject to any additional tax. So heck, why not vote for it -- if other's pay, it's free!
History has shown that the “others will pay!” method is a fantastic way to get new taxes passed. Heck, thats how the 16th Amendment was so easily passed in 1913. (The 16th Amendment, you'll recall, authorizes the federal government to levy and collect its income taxes.) It's sad to say, but most people simply don't have the moral fiber vote against something that's so clearly wrong (the many ganging up on the few). As George Bernard Shaw noted, “A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.”
California's November 2004 election illustrates this lack of moral fiber well:
One proposition (#63) was to enhance mental-health services for the entire population, but be paid for by a special tax affecting only about one tenth of one percent of the population.
Another proposition (#67) would help maintain the availability of emergency medical services (e.g. hospital ERs) for the entire population, and paid for by most anyone with a telephone (at a rate of about six dollars a year).
The goals of both are laudable, but they try to achieve them differently. The first uses the “others will pay!” method, while the second tries to spread it out relatively evenly among those likely to benefit.
In the end, one of them was passed by the voters, while the other was crushed with a 75% “no” vote. Can you guess which one failed? (Hint: “others will pay!” never fails).
I find this kind of thing simply disgusting, and this election's Proposition 82 is no exception. I've already voted by mail, and I certainly voted “no”.
To be clear again, passage of this Proposition wouldn't have any negative impact on me (it wouldn't raise my taxes), and in fact it might benefit me, as I have a preschool-aged child and I may yet spend considerable time in California (we still have a house and many friends there).
It might benefit me, but it's morally reprehensible. I voted no.
As if that wasn't enough, besides the insidious way this Proposition funds itself, it seems to be more concerned with strengthening the Teachers' Union and putting non-Union educators out of work than with the wellbeing of the State's young children. But hey, if others will pay, it must be okay! (sigh)
My brother Steve has an informative writeup on Proposition 82, including links to the “for” and “against” camps.
Starting preschool is a big deal in Japan. It's a “big kid” step, and as such can be a mix of excitement and stress for the kid, Anthony included. It puts parents in a difficult situation, because while you want to play up the excitement, you do so at the risk of playing up the stress. He gets, for example, the excitement of a new backpack and thermos, but then has then has the stress of having to carry them. Of course, just going can be stressful in and of itself.
One big difference to Anthony between daycare and preschool is that he now gets to bring his own lunch. This is a big deal, and because of the masterful way in which Fumie handled it, it's a big deal that is devoid of stress.
First, she got him a Shimajiro bento box. (“Bento” means “boxed lunch”.) Shimajiro is a young cartoon tiger character from a magazine that we get every month, with lots of age-appropriate educational activities for Anthony (we've been getting it for years, as a gift from Fumie's mom, and the activities keep in step with his age). The Shimajiro stuff is excellent for parents, and of course the kids love it. We all like Shimajiro. (Shimajiro's mornic web site is less lovely, and won't let me link to the bento box marketing page!)
In addition, the rest of the lunch-related things are Shimajiro (chopsticks, spoon and fork, bag to carry it all in), so it makes a nice set whose neatness even Anthony can appreciate and enjoy.
As the Mom, Fumie is of course concerned with preparing a healthy meal, but that doesn't matter if he doesn't eat it, so she puts a lot of effort (forethought, testing, and execution) into making fun and tasty meals.
The bento in the picture at the top of this post is the second one he brought to school. The cooked carrots are cut into shapes (airplane, and teddy/Shimajiro heads). The apple slice is in the profile of a bunny. He loves everything in it. It was all made fresh in the morning, just before he left. Fumie made sure that he got to “help” make it, so he had “vested ownership”, so to speak. The same was done with his first school bento, shown here.
Anthony's First Bento
Fish, rice, carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, and a cheese nugget
It wasn't actually his first bento, though. A week prior, Fumie had conceived a “preschool pretend lunch day” with Anthony, where she prepared a bento for him and he ate it while pretending he was at preschool. It was all fun and excitement, and he really enjoyed it.
By the way, when I said that the bento experience is devoid of stress, I was talking about Anthony. It's highly stressful for Fumie because it's so much work and so much is riding on it. He might feel stress and pressure if he can't finish on time, so she's made sure that he can handle the setup and cleanup of all the bento things himself. (Not all bento boxes sold for his age are actually appropriate for his age.) She prepares each bento so that it's easy and fun to eat, and has positioned the whole experience as one where things go smoothly and he feels accomplishment.
I wouldn't have even thought of most of this stuff; she's really done an exceptional job with this.
(All this worry about “stress and pressure” might make it sound like we're trying to shield him from the world, but it's just the opposite. The preschool is very much of the “don't do for them, teach and help them” school of thought, which is one reason we chose it. He has a lot of new responsibilities now -- like eating lunch without help -- but let's not forget that he's still only three years old. The weight of the world is something to be borne in increments.)
During a normal week, Anthony brings a bento four days (Wednesday is always a half day, so lunch is at home), and the bento is still the focus of those days. When he wakes up in the morning, he always wants to know whether today is a bento day, and he's proud to carry the bento himself.
Yesterday's Bento
Rice with vegetable furikake
Weiners cooked to look like octopi
Bite-sized shiitake mushrooms
Mini tomato
An egg wrap with a spinach-like vegetable
In the end, it's food, so it has its own built in measure with which to gauge success: He's never left a single bite uneaten.
You can see all his bentos, updated each morning one is made, at the Anthony's Recent Bentos page.
I'm pretty good at creating software, but for me it's a very different story when it comes to electronics and mechanics, so it was with great awe that I read one man's attempt to photograph insects in flight.
His saga has 10 pages, starting out with a laser sensor he built to trigger the camera when a bug is in the right spot, and includes taking apart a 1950s mechanical shutter, finding a way to open and close the shutter with electromagnets 20x faster than his modern digital SLR camera's shutter lag, and, well, a lot of smarts. He even mills his own lens adaptor rings from a block of aluminum. It's a great story of ingenuity and perseverance.
Elsewhere on his site he has a lot of very interesting high-speed photography, such as a sequence of a bullet piercing a soap bubble. The images are interesting, but the descriptions of how he was able to take them are even more so.
What a smart, cool guy.
Anthony had his first field trip with his preschool class on Thursday, to the Kyoto Prefectural Botanical Gardens. Fumie had come down with a cold, so I got to chaperone. I took 420 photos. Here are three of them...
Kids are meant to run
Friends
Kids are still meant to run