The Larry Kane Report

The Spirit –

It’s the day after and I’m wondering the same thing I’ve wondered over so many years. We hear so much about the “spirit” of the holidays. I love the spirit of the holidays, that special glow, the good feelings that fill the air between Thanksgiving and New Years. We hear about goodwill, and a sense of charity. We seem to be more tolerant during the holidays, less abrasive and more willing to forgive.

All of this leads to the questions: Why don’t we act that way every day, all year long? Are we creating an artificial vacation from hostility and a lack of goodwill? Why can’t we practice the same holiday spirit all of the time?

Now, if you have the spirit of the holidays 24-7, and 365, please ignore my simple wish – that we should be better people , or try to be better people on all days, not just the holidays.

Palin Under Fire-

I’ve been pondering the Republican party’s problem for a few weeks. The Grand Old Party doesn’t have a horse for the course in 2012. And Sarah Palin is complicating the problem. Right now, Palin is sucking the air out of the room, dominating the narrative, all the while trying to be outrageous as ever. Now, I want to share an insight. I talked to Republican leaders locally and in Washington over the past week. And I’m starting to see a trend. The Republican leadership, and especially middle of the road and center-right Congress members who came in on the recent wave, want the less-than-one term Governor to go away. Watch for more public repudiation from Republican leadership of Palin in the weeks ahead. The Republicans and their donors fear a congressional massacre in November 2012 that could make the recent Democratic rejection look like child’s play.

Palin is currently out of favor with the Republican mainstream leadership. Watch for action soon.

WOW!

Thrills a minute in the final quarter of the Eagles game! Does it get any better. The truth about this team – don’t ever shut off the broadcast or leave the stadium! When Merrill Reese, who is far more exciting than his network counterparts, explodes in emotion like he did today, it is a beautiful thing.

But while we savor the win,  there’s also a great lesson about behavior in this game.

Tom Coughlin, the head coach of the Giants, may have a Super Bowl ring, but he’s a loser. His display of anger toward his punter at the end of the game was unsportsmanlike, and completely selfish. Can you imagine Andy Reid doing that in public, or Charlie Manuel?

Coughlin provides an example to young people of a selfish, blame-slamming coach who cares little for managing athletes the right way.  That was an ugly display of how to manage and respect people. Some times you learn more about people in losing than you do in winning.

Tom Coughlin should be ashamed, not just for coughing the game up, but for losing poorly. He should go to  anger management classes. Or maybe, they should just fire him.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, ” the absurd policy on gays in the military is finally being repealed. Now it’s time for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is being repealed by the people of Philadelphia and South Jersey.

No, this is not a fight about gays and lesbians. This is the unsaid policy of trying to cover up political and governmental idiocy. Three stories come to mind, all of which would have never been even known if it wasn’t for good reporting, mainly in the Inquirer,  Courier Post, and KYW Newsradio, for which I do analysis.

The first is the Carl Greene fiasco. Top members of City Council and former Mayor John Street were aware of the big problems facing the head of the Housing Authority, It took a newspaper expose to clean the agency’s act up. Perhaps Street and Council didn’t know the extent of the trouble, but they knew that Greene had a history of sexual harassment charges. Most private companies have a zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment, but government seems to look the other way, at times.

Then there is Schools Chief Arlene Ackerman, who has in a matter of one year, moved slowly on a school violence problem, purged some of the most talented educators in the nation, and okayed a non state-approved firm to get a juicy contract. Dr. Ackerman is supported  by many members of the community. On the issue of minority contracts: Dr. Ackerman has every right to correct pass wrongs, which she is obviously doing with the contract involved. But she must make sure that anyone who gets a city contract for the schools is eminently qualified. Remember, it is the Republicans who basically took over the schools. NOW, The Republicans who soon control both houses of the legislature in Pennsylvania, will no doubt launch a cascade of investigations. Frankly, the school administration,  does not need that distraction. Dr. Ackerman seems to answer to no one. And she keeps running for cover. She needs to discuss this in public.  Perhaps, Bill Miller, one of our greatest citizens, and adviser to Mayors and others, who has supported her avidly, can talk her into practicing her first amendment rights.

And of course, there is DRPA. How about that?  Another buck to cross from one state to another, starting in a few months, just in time for vacation season. This follows questions about the operations of the agency. As someone who has watched DRPA for over 40 years, I still can’t believe that the agency hasn’t been upgraded, streamlined, or broken up.  Deputy Chair Jeff Nash of New Jersey  seems the only person concerned about the consumer. Maybe there are others. If Governor Christie is serious about cutting waste, he would replace every appointee from New Jersey, except Nash. In Pennsylvania, it is the high-profile union leader John Dougherty, a member of the board, who often speaks for the consumer. Of course, none of the agency’s problems, financial and otherwise, would have been known without some great journalists.

Don’t ask – Don’t tell. It’s what some public officials want. But, thank goodness, we have a free press.

This week, Wednesday,  marks the 30th anniversary of the death of John Lennon. I thought it would be  good time to share some thoughts.

If John Lennon were alive today, he would probably say, “What’s the fuss? John, like all performers, had a reasonable ego, but the center of his life was seeking the truth, and eventually, using his fame to help people, and impact lives directly.

While he decried governments who abused their authority, he also had a special place in his heart for officers of the law, campaigning quite often to raise money for badly needed bulletproof vests. The plight of migrant workers was one of his great passions. At the time of his death, he and Yoko were planning a trip to San Francisco to protest for higher wages for California farm workers. Most performers have some sort of connection to public service, sometime just token support. John Lennon’s passion for individualsl and their needs was a full time job, and he worked as hard for people in trouble as he did in those early tireless years of creating and growing his band. John had a clear understanding of the power of worldwide celebrity. He used it, and Yoko has, for the last 30 years, continued the legacy, as a tribute to their joint efforts in behalf of a world with peace, and the people who live in it.

People often ask me, “What was John really like?  Although John was a complex man, the answer is easy. First, he was unlike any other mega-star of our lifetime. He said in public what he thought in private. There was little filter. It was refreshing, but sometimes risky. Conspiracy theorists in the Nixon and Ford White House, believed that John was, through his words and music (the hit “Imagine” was viewed with alarm), an enemy of the state. Of course, he was an enemy of no one, and was vindicated by the courts, and given the right to get his Green card and stay in the United States.

On a personal level, I have met few people quite like him.  He and George were the compassionate Beatles, always willing to help. The time he came to Philadelphia for me for a 30-hour charity marathon, he had remembered that my mother had lost her battle against Multiple Sclerosis when I was 21 years old. He, too, had lost his Mom at an even younger age. He was naturally sympathetic, and wonderfully helpful. Unlike, many other superstars, he shied away from big crowds, and enjoyed personal contact, and individual dialogue. Believe me when I till you that John could debate an issue till he was dry in the mouth and red in the face. On a plane in 1966, he expressed his anger that I had entered the military during the Vietnam War era. We argued for over two hours on the way from St. Louis to New York. And then he suggested that I could be spirited out of the country to avoid my service obligations and come to London to work for the Beatles. He just didn’t understand why I turned him down. But, frankly, I was touched that he was so concerned about me, since I really wasn’t.

Make no mistake – John was not a perfect human being. He was a bad father, then a good dad a decade later. He was invested in alcohol and drugs, and thankfully finally found his way. He was a mentor to Ringo during the lonely post-Beatle years, and he was quite inspirational to George and Ringo, even when his own world was falling apart in the early seventies. He loved Yoko, then May Pang, and then Yoko again, as he desperately tried to find the real path to happiness. His songs. Like public utterances, were often autobiographical. Was he helping us try to learn from his mistakes, or seeing our sympathy?

In the end, though, he left us with exquisite memories, and zeal to find out more than we really wanted to know about life, to read, study, and to challenge both our institutions and ourselves. Coupled, along with his and his three friends amazing collection of music and words, his contributions to ours and other generations, remains enduring. Concrete statues immortalize some people. John’s legacy is as a poet of words, whose messages of love, challenge, and hopes for peace, reverberate in our hopes for a better life.

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