Socrates’ plan of breeding the Guardian class is interesting.  It is one part Hitler’s Aryan Race, one part slave owner’s dream, and two parts Hillary Clinton’s, “It Takes a Village.”  At times one has to wonder if Socrates believes what he is saying, or is he just trying to push the people around him buttons.  We can see in today’s society how the “new family” structure works.  With the divorce rate hovering around 50% we have evidence of how successful the communal family works.  The children are confused, their loyalties torn; have depression issues and, in turn, often have poor family relationships.  Perhaps this is Socrates’ goal, there is no loyalty to family only to the state.  Was this not Hitler’s goal with his youth programs?  We know it was the policy of the slave owner; breed the best stock keep some, sell some.  In the end both of these ideas feed into Hillary’s village.

The loyalty is to the community, or the “just city,” and not to the basic family structure that has built societies that have grown and flourished.  Socrates’ breeding plan lowers mankind to the level of the beast.  

The just city can not come into existence.  The basic struggle will always be; whose justice will rule and will the just ruler, rule justly.  Some consider Marx a philosopher, yet when his idea of a “just city” was put to the test millions died.  The Founding Fathers, to some were philosophers, tried to create a shining city on the hill, but slavery continued, if you didn’t own property you couldn’t vote, presidents suspended the rights of citizens and, it seems at times, the powerful only have their best interests in mind.  Unfortunately, if the “just city” came into existence the philosopher would give way to the tyrant.  Man’s justice is imperfect and that is the reality we face.

The Problem

            Diabetes is one of the fastest growing health problems in the United States today.  More than 16 million Americans have diabetes.  There are several types of diabetes among them are; Type 1, Type 2 and Gestational.  Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that develops only in pregnant women. Type 1 diabetes is better known as juvenile-onset diabetes.  However it is Type 2 that is becoming a national epidemic.

            The risk group for type 2 diabetes can include older aged individuals, people suffering from obesity, those with a family history of diabetes, physically inactive people and those with impaired glucose tolerance.  While the disease cuts across racial lines, those of African-America, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders are at a higher risk for type 2 diabetes.  A few of the symptoms of this form of diabetes can be; frequent urination, excessive thirst, unexplained weight loss, extreme hunger, sudden vision changes, trembling or numbness in the hands or feet and feeling tired much of the time.  Any one having these symptoms should see a doctor.

The Causes

            This form of diabetes can develop at any age.  Type 2 diabetes often begins with insulin resistance, a condition where fat, muscle and liver cells do not use the insulin properly.  There is believed to be a strong genetic link in Type 2.  Several genes are being studied by scientists that may be related to this type of diabetes.  However in some respects Type 2 seems to be a self-induced disease.

            Type 2 diabetes is spreading down the age ladder and is striking teenagers at an alarming rate.  A person who becomes a diabetic as a teenager will have terrible complications by the time they are thirty.  Why are today’s teens so susceptible to diabetes today?  To be blunt they are lazy, fat and glued to the Xbox or Playstation 2. Teenagers of today do not take part in sports, ride bikes or engage in most of the recreational activities of just a generation ago.

            If you can find a park in decent condition, do you ever see any unorganized activity taking place?  Chances are no.  Today parents focus so much on living their lives through their children that they are now damaging physically.  Often by the age of ten sports programs have determined which 15-20 kids are the athletes, sending the vast majority inside to sit in front of the television playing video games, or worse.

            Many of today’s teens spend so much time behind a computer that their rear ends are fused to the chair.  According to Project Takeoff the amount of overweight adolescents (12-19) has tripled.  As a teen does less diabetes starts to slow the body’s metabolism further causing the sufferer to be come more lethargic and irritable.  As young Johnny becomes fatter and less socially skilled he hides behind a television or computer screen eating himself to death.  Instead of expanding his horizons with healthy activities, they are expanding their waste lines and shortening their lives.

            While the young may be able to blame adults and today’s hi-tech society, their parents only have themselves to blame.  Perhaps the most informed, as to healthy lifestyle choices, they are the most narcissistic and self-destructive group of individuals in history.  In an effort to have it all they have sacrificed years of their lives to fast food, alcohol, tobacco and laziness.

            We have become so lazy that pizza and movies are delivered to our homes.  Families across America fight to see who has to get up and answer the door.  God forbid we can’t find the remote control.  Do you remember, or have tried to explain to a teen, when we had to get up and change the channel, turn up the volume by hand?  People complain about the cost of a gallon of gas, not realizing that the medical cost for each diabetic costs between $10,000 to $12,000 annually.  Pass the pepperoni.

            In our rush to surpass the Jones, the stress of sixty hour work weeks is adding to our susceptibility to diabetes.  With pagers, cell phones, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, emails, walkie-talkie phones there is no escape from the hassles of work.

We gain weight as we sit in front of our terminal eating our super stacker burger with the works, biggie fry and Diet Coke.  For people in their forties, the incidence of diabetes has increased by 40 percent over the past eight years.  The life expectancy of people over forty with Type 2 diabetes decreases by 5-10 years.  With the stress, poor eating habits and lack of exercise is any wonder that heart disease is the leading cause of death for people with Type 2 diabetes.

            In response to the growing health burden and cost of diabetes, we are faced with three choices: prevent diabetes, control diabetes and improving the medical communities’ ability to care for those suffering from diabetes. 

Quite simply we could cut the risks of Type 2 diabetes by pushing ourselves away from the table and taking a walk in the park.  A number of studies have shown that regular physical activity, only 30 minutes a day, a person can greatly reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. 
 

            Western Pennsylvania has much to offer a resident.  In fact, Pittsburgh is an excellent place to live, having been named the “Most Livable City” twice.  The area offers hunting and fishing, both just minutes away from downtown.  The city itself offers many different types of entertainment.  Pittsburgh has the Steelers, Pirates, Penguins and numerous colleges if you enjoy sports.  If you’re not a big sports fan, come downtown and visit the zoo, the Buhl Science Center, Heinz Hall, the Carnegie Museum or the Warhol Museum.  However if you dare to venture in to the fair city be warned, these are some of the worst roads in the country, as well as, pothole capital of the world.   There is cost effective solution that could turn Pittsburgh into the most drivable city by simply using a willow we can end the weeping.

            As the seasons change in Allegheny County the residents don’t need a calendar.  Sure there are the regular seasons; spring, summer, fall and winter, but the one that brings out the worst in the local citizens is pothole season. Unfortunately, we are famous for our potholes, some are rumored to have swallowed entire cars, there is no real proof to back that claim.  Route 51 heading south to Elizabeth had so many potholes one season that it was called the “Burma Road.”  One year there was a pothole on Route 65, in Avalon, that measured eight feet long and three feet wide.

            It has been suggested that the main cause of the pothole problem is the weather.  The snow or rain, freezes on the road, then melts and re-freezes under the road causing the nasty pothole.  However, I would argue that the problem is the clay under the road.  The clay holds moisture under the road all year and when the temperature changes, regardless of snow or rain, the road starts to bubble or break as the clay freezes.  So it really doesn’t matter what type of road surface is used or, for that matter, what type of drainage system is used under the road.  The real problem is the water being held in the clay.

            A simple, cost effective and environmentally friendly solution to the problem is Weeping Willow trees.  A Weeping Willow is a fast growing tree that absorbs gallons of water.  The tree searches for water in the surrounding area and grows well in all types of ground conditions.  I would suggest finding a two mile area along a well traveled road in the Allegheny County area and plant several Weeping Willow trees on both sides.  If the program works, the trees could be planted along sections of road throughout Pennsylvania, at about the cost of $18.45 per tree.

            The savings made by not having to continually work on the same stretches of road would free up money to make the necessary repairs to the roads in the cities.  Where possible Weeping Willows, or other similar trees, could be planted in suitable areas in the cities to see if this project could succeed in a downtown area.  Given the poor reputation of our roads and the environmental concerns of the time, the Weeping Willow project could enhance the reputation of the Pittsburgh area, as well as, put us in the forefront of creative change for road condition solutions.

           What is a comedian? Granted comics have probably been around forever.  It has long been rumored that the first comic gag involved a burning leather sack of dinosaur dung placed outside an unsuspecting Neanderthal’s cave door.  However overtime a debate has raged over comics and comedians; are they the same or is there a difference between the two?  Henny Youngman and Richard Pryor both made people laugh, but is there some special spark that made one a comic and the other a comedian? Larry the Cable Guy and Bob Engvall are two of today’s most popular entertainers.  While their presentations could be considered “down home country” their styles are very different.  It is the style that is the difference.  A comic throws out shorts bursts or lines, while a comedian is almost a modern day philosopher.

            A comic can be found in his early stages in the back of a classroom, often in science class, answering that his favorite planet is Uranus.  Get it? Your anus. The young comic often is the one to give clever nicknames to classmates; the red headed kid is, of course, “red.”  The kid with glasses is “four-eyes” and Jane is “Plain Jane.”  He can most often be seen reading Mad-Libs, completing silly one line sentences that make a haphazard story.  At this stage he is relatively harmless, often annoying, better to have as a friend than enemy.

            A comedian at this young stage can be found entertaining a small group during lunch or at the bus stop.  In the formative stage he will tell exaggerated tales that involve multiple layers of adventure, mystery and humor in his or a friends life.  Often to gain a wider audience he will tell tales that involve two or more friends.  The stories rarely degrade the principles and mostly focus on the farce of the situation they were in.  A typical story may describe a camping adventure where the boys start to discuss farting and decide to have a contest.  After two hours of farting the tent smells so bad they have to sleep outside, and it begins to rain. Of course they can’t go into the house or they would get in trouble for “horsing around instead of sleeping.”  Besides are the others going to call home and ask their parents come pick them up because the tent smells.  These shared experiences become the foundation of the young comedian’s growth. 

            Once out of school, it is at this point that the comedian separates himself from the comic.  If both go to college, chances are, the comic has consumed almost all the beer in Milwaukee, whereas, the comedian has been observing what has been going on around him, and possibly attending class.  The comic while at college continues to spit out pithy one-liners.  However his audience has grown matured and is not now as easily entertained.  The comedian has adapted his monologues for the group he is hanging out with, or quite possibly, hanging out with him.  Here, by watching and listening, he begins to develop expand his world view, thought process and opinions of people. 

            Not all comedians learn their skills in college.  Many have started from nothing, in deplorable conditions and have become successful comedians.  Richard Pryor’s mother was a prostitute and he lived in the whorehouse run by his grandmother.  Yet Pryor became one of the biggest, best known comedians of all-time.  Many of today’s comedians list Richard Pryor as one of their greatest influences.  Pryor cut through racial and societal boundaries due to his ability to draw his audiences into his stories.  He covered controversial topics, including his own life, and made them thought provoking as well as enjoyable.

            There are many who found Pryor obscene and disgusting.  Some said he was just continuing what Lenny Bruce had started in the early Sixties.  Bruce may have set the stage for comedians like Pryor, but his stories were shocking social commentary that often gained only uncomfortable laughter.  Bruce was considered vulgar as he often swore and blasted religion, both controversial at the time.  A contrast between Bruce and Pryor would be he might call you a stupid motherfucker, but he would do it with a smile on his face and only after he had spent about an hour calling himself the same thing.  Bruce however, would swear at you and expect you to have no reaction as they were words you had heard all your life.  Bruce, unlike Pryor, enjoyed sharing his experiences good or bad.  It was almost a relief to free his pain and help audiences expand or consider their belief systems.

            Perhaps the polar opposite of Pryor is Bill Crosby.  Crosby is a graduate of Temple University and has been awarded many honorary degrees.  He became a successful comedian by sharing stories of his life as a child and, over time, his life as a father.  Crosby’s appeal was almost universal.  The stories of his youth included tales of his brother and Fat Albert.  These were stories that many adults could relate too.  Crosby also told of the humorous trials and tribulations of parenthood.  Once again, these were real stories that both parents and kids could relate.  His performances lead to a top rated, long running television show, The Crosby Show.  Only a comedian could hold the attention of the television viewer with a story that entertained and often had a powerful message.

            Bill Engvall is a popular comedian who is similar to Crosby.  Engvall learned his trade the old fashion way, he worked at it.  Unlike Crosby, he did not attend college. 

Engvall started at the Dallas Comedy Club telling stories about his friends and family.  Now his act contains stories and observations of everyday people he meets around the country.  He can spin a story on life for half an hour and the audience is transported into the scene.  By the end of the show crowd has been thoroughly entertained have learned some valuable lessons on the human condition.

            Obviously there will always be some crossover in regard to comedians and comics.  However, on the whole, there are real differences. As Jack Benny once said, “A comic says funny things. A comedian says things funny.”  A comic as we have seen is good at one liners, nicknames and short quips.  A comedian, on the other hand, entertains. It may be a turn of phrase, making a similar experience seem new and funny, or taking a difficult subject and cause the audience to think about it in a different light.  Henny Youngman was known for his one liners, he was a comic.  Richard Pryor and those like him are comedians as they show us slices of life, both humorous and troubling, while making us laugh and think.  They are today’s philosophers. 

           The definition of leadership that I found most appealing is described in “Transactional and Transforming Leadership,” by James McGregor Burns.  In this piece Burns portrays leadership in this way, “I define leadership as leaders inducing followers to act for certain goals that represent the values and motivations-the wants and needs, the aspirations and expectations-of both leaders and followers” (100).  In this we can see that leadership involves not only the ideas and concern of the leader, but gaining the trust and loyalty of the followers.

            Today, at least in the area of political leadership, the public seems to be more concerned in voting for celebrity, than a leader.  In the past there was more reasoned discussion on the issues of the day.  While the twenty-four hour news cycle and the internet have brought more people into the debate, the noise of special interest groups or the extremes of both parties has drowned out some of the ability to solve the problems we face.

            The difficulty faced today by leaders and followers is one of trust.  While the voters may like a candidate as an individual, there is a lack of trust.  There seems to be a disconnect between those in power and those that put them there.  This can be seen in polling that has Congressional and Presidential favorability numbers at record lows. It is possible that this could change if the next generation of political leaders were to embrace Burns’ idea of leadership.

            A candidate who can run on shared ideas and values can motivate his followers to stick with the agenda when times get tough.  In today’s political climate, as our leaders are viewed as celebrities, once the going gets tough, the followers pack their bags and go home.  Leaders and followers are superficial, were as, with the Burns model there is a shared sense of purpose and willingness to dig in to do battle for a common purpose.

            An example from the past would be President Ronald Reagan.  During his campaign he focused on four to five issues that resonated with people of all types.  Once elected, he held firm to his beliefs and went directly to his followers to contact Congress to get their legislation passed.  In Burns’ words, “. . . the genius of leadership lies in the manner in which leaders see and act on their follower’s values and motivations” (100).  Reagan knew where his people stood on the issues and had the ability to get them motivated to get the job done.

            A more recent example would be Congressman Ron Paul.  Rep. Paul was not well known on the national stage, yet had an impact in the 2008 Republican primaries.  Paul, like Reagan had a simple and straight forward message that crossed party lines.  A Ron Paul rally had people of all ages, ethnic, social and religious groups together based a set of shared values.  Even though he did not win the nomination of his party, Paul’s followers have established a couple of political groups to continue the work of the Ron Paul Revolution.

            Why was Reagan successful, while Paul failed using the same strategies and Burns’ model of leadership?  The big difference in the two was that Reagan had been a governor and was better known to the public.  The turning point in the primaries forReagan came in a debate in New Hampshire.  Reagan had lost in Iowa to George H. W. Bush who was claiming he now had “Big Mo.” Reagan and Bush agreed to a debate in New Hampshire that would be paid for by the Reagan campaign.  Reagan also invited the other four candidates to the debate.  Bush refused to debate them and eventually left.

Mark Hatfield of the Senate Historical Office put importance of this debate in its proper context writing,

This proved to be a pivotal moment in the campaign; when the moderator, John Breene, ordered Reagan's microphone turned off, his angry response, "I am paying for this microphone Mr. Greene", struck a chord with the public. Bush ended up losing New Hampshire's primary with 23 percent to Reagan's 50 percent.  Bush lost most of the remaining primaries as well, and formally dropped out of the race in May of that year.

 Ronald Reagan at that moment touched America.  Not only did Reagan talk about opportunity and fair play, he proved it with his actions during this debate.

            Unfortunately for Ron Paul he had no such moment in the debates.  With the cable news network’s controlling the debates, Rep. Paul was marginalized and was not allowed to participate in one debate.  Undaunted, Paul took his message to the internet which, it seemed, the majority of his support was based.  While this was effective in raising money and getting his message out, it didn’t help in the polls or the primary contests.

            In both Reagan and Paul you have two leaders that stood for what they believed in and attracted followers that felt the same way.  This is what a leader should be, someone with a strong foundations of beliefs that can rally people from different backgrounds and social standings to unite for a common purpose.  President Reagan may have started out in the movies, but when it came to leadership, he was not just a celebrity.